On Tuesday 12 March, the General Court rejected the complaint of former German MEP Fabio De Masi (GUE/NGL) and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, in asking the European Central Bank to publish documents relating to the decision it made at the end of June 2015 to withdraw the access of Greek banks to its emergency liquidity.
Specifically, the complainants' request was for the publication of an external legal opinion that the Monetary Institute had requested with regard to the legality of its decision (see EUROPE 11929/16). By causing the failure of Greek banks, the ECB exerted very strong pressure on the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras, which wanted to renegotiate the terms of the financial assistance provided to the country.
“Contrary to what the applicants claim, the ECB could legitimately take into account the hypothetical effects that the disclosure of the contested document could have on its space to think in 2015 and also after 2015”, the Court claimed.
Mr Varoufakis immediately promised that an appeal would be lodged with the European Court of Justice. “Exercising this power with decisions made behind closed doors and on the basis of undisclosed arguments is inconsistent with European democracy. The least Europeans can expect, is access to legal opinions that they have paid for regarding the exercise of the ECB’s enormous power”, he said on his website.
The judgment of the Court of First Instance can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/2u5pW2D. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)