Yanis Varoufakis & Fabio De Masi: Open the ECB black box

In June 2015, the European Central Bank (ECB) closed the Greek banks as part of the Troika campaign to force a 3rd ‘bailout’ on Greece, with new austerity measures and significant losses of national sovereignty.

Was this legal and within the ECB’s charter and mandate? Or was there a conflict of interest between the ECB’s role as Greece’s central bank and its participation in the Troika of official creditors? The President of the ECB, Mr Mario Draghi, was not sure, as evidenced by his decision to commission an independent legal opinion on this issue.

The ECB is now refusing the public, even to Members of the European Parliament, the right to read this legal opinion.

Yanis Varoufakis (former Minister of Finance Greece, DiEM25) and Fabio De Masi (Member of European Parliament, DIE LINKE.) therefore launched a public citizen campaign for transparency and freedom of information. They demand the immediate publication of this legal opinion. In this they are supported by prominent Europeans, among them two candidates for the French Presidency, and renowned international academics including Professors Jeffrey Sachs and James K. Galbraith.

Varoufakis and De Masi will give a joint press conference to explain why this campaign is crucial for the future of European democracy and to announce a future lawsuit before EU courts:

On Wednesday, 8 March at 10:00 in Anna Politkovskaya Room, PHS 0A50, in the European Parliament in Brussels.(Interpretation DE, EN, EL)

The press conference will also provide a Livestream[1].

Attachments

• Denial of request to release legal opinion on separation between monetary and economic policy[2]
• Background to the campaign[3]
• You can find further information on the campaign here[4] and here[5].

Links:

1. http://web.guengl.streamovations.be/index.php/event/stream/press-conference-de-masi-varoufakis
2. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/150918letter_demasi_3.en.pdf
3. https://diem25.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/170217_DiEM25_ECB_Campaign_Background_EN.pdf
4. https://diem25.org/thegreekfiles/
5. https://www.fabio-de-masi.de/en/article/1426.time-to-open-the-ecb-black-box.html