(by Nino Galloni)
Source: https://scenarieconomici.it/loro-di-banca-ditalia-di-nino-galloni/
Mario Draghi responded directly to the yellow-and-green European MEPs questions on the subject. He spoke of the ECB's right to hold and manage currency resources (based on Article 30 of the ECB Statute). It is therefore two aspects: if it manages and holds it means that it is not the owner, in other words that it cannot sell; but if gold is a currency reserve it may have to be sold (at least in theory) based on obvious needs.
However, in these situations, to sell (extraordinary act) the authorization of a higher-level authority is required in the interest of the owner (Italian people, inalienable assets; Italian state, alienable assets); but this superordinate authority does not exist. Therefore, of the two, one: or gold is a reserve, then the guarantee authority is missing (as in the case of the property of a minor or a subject not considered independent); or gold cannot be sold and then it is not "reserve". In fact, the second and even more delicate aspect: the ECB Statute speaks of foreign exchange reserves, but gold could be considered as such when there was the pledge of the currency to gold (and to other currencies with fixed exchange rates between them and gold convertibility established by international agreements). Today this is no longer the case: the sale of gold in the various currencies (or vice versa) is not decided by agreements or by an authority, but by the free market.
The question would be very simple in a historical perspective: after 1971 it is a resource, not a reserve (in a technical-monetary sense). The only competence of the ECB, therefore, concerns the authorization regime towards the Bank of Italy in terms of supervision over it as required by the Treaties and by the same Statute.
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