Two weeks ago, somewhat out of the blue, ECB President Mario Draghi issued an odd statement confirming that the European Central Bank needs to approve any operation in the foreign reserves of euro zone countries, including gold and large foreign currency holdings.

"The ECB shall approve both the operations in foreign reserve assets remaining with the NCBs (national central banks)...and Member States' transactions with their foreign exchange working balances above a certain threshold,"

"The purpose of this competence is to ensure consistency with the exchange rate and monetary policy of the Union."

Specifically, Draghi made this statement to two Italian members of the European Parliament.