Wolfgang Schäuble of Germany named the best European finance minister-Ireland's Lenihan the worst

Brian Lenihan of Ireland has been named as Europe's worst finance minister in a survey of economists by the Financial Times. He was ranked 19th in the survey for the second year in a row. Germany's Wolfgang Schäuble ( picture insert ) was named as Europe's top finance minister in the survey. Poland's Jacek Rostowski came in second ahead of last year's winner, France's Christine Lagarde, in the survey of the finance ministers of the European Union's 19 biggest economies.

Britain's George Osborne was sixth. Goerge Papaconstantinou of Greece came eighth. The Netherlands Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager was ranked 11th.

Among other EU members that markets see as having shaky finances, Elena Salgado of Spain shared 17th place with Hungary's Gyorgy Matolcsy, one place ahead of Teixeira dos Santos of Portugal.

The FT's 'jury' of economists ranked the finance ministers on the basis of their political skills - for which Papaconstantinou got top marks - as well as economic performance and credibility in the markets. For the complete ranking by the Financial Times click on this link.

For more: FT - Lenihan Europe's worst finance minister - RTÉ News