Letter to President Draghi
Ambiguity with TARGET2 in case of a country leaving the Eurosystem
Brussels, 20 April 2017
Dear Mr. President,
In your reply from 11 April 2017 to our parliamentary question you point at the “irrevocability of the
Euro”, explaining why you were not able or willing to answer the question I asked you.
However, in your letter to the Italian MEPs from 18 January 2017 you yourself explicitly refer to an
exit case by stating: “If a country were to leave the Eurosystem (...)”. You even highlight the
consequences of such an exit decision: “Its national central bank’s claims on or liabilities to the ECB
would need to be settled in full.”
Therefore, our question remains: Given the answer to the hypothetical scenario of Italy leaving the
euro and the statement that “its national central bank’s liabilities have to be settled (by Italy) in full”,
does this also mean, if Germany were to leave the euro, that its claims would have to be settled (by
the ECB) in full?
Mr. President, I believe you cannot on one hand describe to my Italian colleagues the possible
consequences of leaving the Eurosystem and on the other deny a German MEP an equivalent
explanation of the hypothetical consequences of Germany leaving this system. I believe all MEPs have
the right to obtain consistent information by the head of such an important institution as the ECB.
Awaiting your response in due course, I remain
Sincerely yours,
Hans-Olaf Henkel, MEP
In copy:
Jens Weidmann, Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt
Dr. Andreas Dombret, Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt