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Join our campaign to demand that the ECB publish the legal opinion it commissioned on whether its closure of Greece’s banks in 2015 was… legal

In 2015, the European Central Bank (ECB) forced Greece’s banks to close as part of the Troika’s attempt to intimidate the newly-elected Greek government into abandoning what it had been voted in to do: renegotiate the country’s public debt, fiscal policy and reform agenda.

Following the closure of the banks, capital controls were imposed on Greece. These are still in place, with widespread social and economic costs for its already-ailing economy.

We know the ECB commissioned a legal opinion on the legality of those actions. And we want to see that opinion, but the ECB refuses to make it public!

The ECB has the exorbitant power to close down a Eurozone country’s banks. Exercising this power with decisions made behind closed doors by unelected officials 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 power. Yanis Varoufakis (DiEM25), Greece’s finance minister at the time, and MEP Fabio de Masi (GUE/NGL), supported by a broad alliance of politicians and academics, have announced they will file a mass freedom of information request to the ECB to get this opinion.

DiEM25 is now asking you to support Varoufakis and De Masi’s mass freedom of information request by signing this petition. DiEM25’s campaign is co-sponsored, among many others, by Benoît Hamon (Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of the French Republic), Katja Kipping (Co-Chair, Die Linke) and Gesine Schwan (twice SPD’s candidate for the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Germany)

This campaign is just the beginning of DiEM25’s long struggle for transparency and democracy in Europe. If the ECB denies this request to release #TheGreekFiles, Varoufakis and De Masi will consider all options – including legal action – to make this vital information public.

Please sign this petition now and become a signatory of the Varoufakis-DeMasi mass freedom of information request to the European Central Bank!

By signing, you are helping us put a simple question to the ECB President Mr Draghi: if you acted legally why don’t you release the legal opinion regarding your actions?