Countries in Europe are getting ready to back their currency, at least partially, with gold. Jan Nieuwenhuijs, an expert in the movement of gold markets that follows central bank purchases, has found evidence that this is happening coordinately, even though central banks publicly deny it.

The root of this common understanding would be the 1999 Washington meeting that produced the Central Bank Gold Agreements, in which 15 central banks inked a pact to coordinate their gold sales and maintain a stable metal market.

On this agreement, Nieuwenhuijs stated:

For those paying close attention, it was obviously meant to equalize gold reserves among countries relative to GDP.

To justify his allegations, Nieuwenhuijs reports that the recent purchases from countries like Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were directed to equilibrate their gold reserve to GDP ratio to the ones held by countries in the Eurozone. This is supported by statements made by Poland’s former Minister of Finance Konrad Raczkowski, directly commenting on these numbers.

Raczkowski assessed that Poland should purchase 120 tonnes of gold to reach the ratio maintained by several other countries in the Eurozone, 4% GDP. He declared:

It seems that in the near future, this will be the new gold standard for the entire eurozone. These reserves will have to be adjusted to the size of the economy.

Nonetheless, Nieuwenhuijs reports that, even with all the evidence surrounding these coordinated moves, central banks have continuously denied there is some kind of harmonization behind these exchanges. “Countless Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted throughout Europe, directed at central banks and Ministries of Finance, all yielded nil,” he stressed.

However, he has sometimes received negative answers to these petitions, with the Central Bank of Belgium stating that this information was “confidential,” obeying a central bank law that commanded the institution to maintain a “legal obligation of secrecy.”

In August, Nieuwenhuijs alleged that China, which had stopped purchasing gold according to reports, was secretly growing its reserves to take advantage of the price cool-off.

Read more: Report Reveals China Continues to Secretly Grow Its Gold Stash, Misleading Market to Cause Price Cool-Off