Relatively long terms of office and the fact that the term of office is not renewable are integral parts of a central bank statute based on the independence of the persons appointed. Academic study and research have dealt extensively with this issue and emphasised the significance of the independence of the appointees.
Seen from that viewpoint, the eight-year term of office for the Members of the Directorate would tend to be at the lower end of the scale. For the same reason, the member states should make use of the possibility of making appointments for longer than five years. (For an analysis of the length of terms of office, see Waller and Walsh, 1996.)