THE European Central Bank (ECB) is an EU institution of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) to which all 28 EU member states belong, including Britain.

The ECB’s governing council comprises six members of the executive board and governors of national central banks within the 19 eurozone member states.

The board contains a president, Mario Draghi, a vice-president and four other members — all of whom are appointed for eight years by the European Council using qualified majority voting (QMV).

Without exception, they are all bankers. Draghi was a former governor of the Bank of Italy, World Bank member and a managing director of Goldman Sachs.

Eurozone monetary policy is managed by the ECB. This includes setting interest and exchange rates, which are two vital controls over the economies which member states give up in order to replace their national currencies with the euro. The bank’s official primary objective is to maintain price stability and to keep inflation under control.

The ECB was set up by the EU Treaty of Amsterdam in June 1998, which Britain ratified when Tony Blair was prime minister. In reality the ECB is a corporation, with shareholders and stock capital. The Bank of England, itself a private bank, “owns” 13.7 per cent of the ECB capital stock — or £85 billion.

The ECB is an anomaly within the EU because it isn’t a political union. The euro is the only currency in the world without a central government. Associated with the ECB’s control over the eurozone and across the EU are several institutions, mechanisms and pacts.

The European Financial Stability Facility was set up in May 2010 by the then 27 EU member states with headquarters in Luxembourg. In the same building is the European Stability Mechanism, “owned” by eurozone countries. In theory this is to provide assistance to those eurozone countries suffering financial difficulties which occurred in 2011-13, when five countries were “helped out” with bailout loans to solve their sovereign debts.

They included Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Cyprus. Loans totalling £352 billion were overseen with harsh conditions imposed by the troika of the ECB, European Commission and IMF.

This has been the incomprehensible fate of Greece, well documented in the press and media, where a referendum was held opposing these harsh austerity conditions. Posing as left wing, the Syriza government reneged on promises made prior to both the general election which brought it to power and the preceding referendum that overwhelmingly rejected austerity.

The loans were in practice made to these eurozone members as a means to transfer financial resources with added high interest rates to the banks that made the loans in the first place. Britain contributed £1bn to the stability facility.

The conditions attached to these bailouts include privatisation of the public sector, a reduction in the welfare state, cuts in pensions, privatisation, the sale and closure of public services and private enterprises to foreign buyers, and much more. In other words, permanent austerity and more exploitation of those who work. All part of a common EU policy, including across Britain.

Britain and Denmark have put in place the strict criteria of EMU and only they have an opt-out from the euro agreed at the 1993 EU summit in Edinburgh. Denmark faces a referendum on December 3 on dropping its opt-out on justice and home affairs. If this goes in the EU’s favour Denmark will then face another referendum on joining the EU’s banking union. This portends thrusting Denmark towards joining the eurozone.

If that were to happen, Britain would be the only member state left with an opt-out from the euro despite the crisis and long-term EU treaty obligations which require all member states to join.

Behind-the-scenes negotiations between David Cameron and the EU could well include the subject of joining the euro. This isn’t far-fetched as Britain once joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, known as the snake, in 1990. But it was forced to leave in 1992 after interest rates soared to 15 per cent. This was after Britain spent £6bn shoring up sterling.

Despite the eurozone crisis, members of the European Movement pressure group and others in Business for New Europe have publicly called for Britain to join the euro.

All the above are reasons for voting to leave the EU in the referendum.

• John Boyd is secretary of the Campaign Against Eurofederalism www.caef.org.uk.