The Italian parliamentary committee has approved the categorization of gold reserves as public property.

A committee of the Italian Parliament has approved an amendment to next year's budget that declares the country's gold reserves held by the central bank belong to the "people," ignoring criticism from the European Central Bank. Since last month, when the amendment was proposed by the right-wing political party led by Italian Prime Minister Meloni, the European Central Bank has intervened twice, warning that this could harm the independence of the Italian central bank. The text approved by the Italian Senate budget committee on Friday stated, "The gold reserves shown on the balance sheet of the Bank of Italy, managed and held by it, belong to the Italian people." This proposed legislation still needs to go through several approval processes before it takes effect, including wording aimed at clarifying that it will not override EU rules protecting central bank independence. The Bank of Italy stated on its website that it has the third largest national gold reserve in the world, after the United States and Germany.