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The horse-trading over who will be the next president of the EU Commission has pushed another important European appointment out of the headlines.
The presidency of the European Central Bank is, arguably, as crucial a role as that of heading the commission. And whoever succeeds Mario Draghi in October will have a hard act to follow.
His eight-year term as the central bank’s chief spanned a perilous period in the short history of the eurozone.
It now has 19 members that use the euro and accounts for about one-fifth of the global economy.
But there were times, in late 2011 and 2012, when it appeared that the eurozone would fall apart, that countries such as Greece or Spain would go bankrupt and that the region would become trapped in the sort of downward deflationary spiral that can lead to economic depression.
It is only a slight exaggeration to say that Mr Draghi single-handedly saved the euro.
As the zone’s political leaders dithered, and countries such as Germany baulked at bailing out struggling neighbours, his central bank was the only institution standing in the way of disaster.
Mr Draghi was decisive at a time when the risk of the eurozone breaking up or imploding was as all too real.
He told an audience in London that the central bank was prepared to do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro."
In effect, he warned investors not to bet against the euro and that expression of resolve is now regarded as the turning point which saved the currency.
Those well-chosen words calmed the markets and he continued to impress as a man who knew what he was doing and did not bend to political whims. He exuded composure and substance.
If he felt fear, he never showed it.Having saved the eurozone from itself, he went on to introduce new monetary instruments when they were needed.
The ECB bought sovereign bonds and provided banks with cheap liquidity which, in turn, helped lift the countries of the EU (and not just the eurozone) out of recession.
If all had gone to plan, he would now be unwinding those measures and his successor would be looking at a gentle restoration of interest rates that would reward savers and curb some over-heating economies.
But suddenly the people who manage monetary policy everywhere are reversing direction in the face of new threats to growth such as President Trump’s trade war with China and escalating tension between the United States and Iran.
All this led Mr Draghi to warn last week that “additional stimulus will be required” to help Europe withstand the economic challenges.
The warning caused European financial markets to rally and the value of the euro to slip.
They angered Mr Trump who accused Mr Draghi of deliberately pushing down the value of the euro “making it unfairly easier for them to compete against the USA”.
Mr Trump views international economic policies through an increasingly narrow lens, seeing only how decisions will affect the USA.
He has threatened to demote the chairman of the Fed if the Central Bank of the United States does not also move toward fiscal easing.
The first response from the Fed was to postpone a threatened rise in interest rates and many economists expect the central bank to at least signal that it is willing to cut rates soon.
So, although Mr Draghi is undoubtedly handing over a eurozone in better shape than when took charge, the problems it faces are considerable.
It will be hard to find another Mario Draghi, but at least he has set the standard by which all contenders should be judged.
