UFC Can you explain this in a little more detail? cheers.
Look what's happening in the US at the moment. They are using quantitative easing (i.e. printing money) to increase the circulation of money. This has a number of effects, three of the big ones being a) a devaluation of the currency hence a devaluation of all debt and b) increased money supply which means high inflation and lots of money to buy things like stocks and commodities and c) cheap exports.
So the US economy is in big trouble, but because of quantitative easing they are able to print their own money to buy their own debt. Example: the US treasury needs money so they offer some bond at x%. No foreign investors want to buy the bond so the federal reserve prints loads of money and buys it themselves. In effect this mean the US is able to borrow money from itself and can never go bankrupt. However this sort of nonsense makes imports very expensive, dilutes the value of people's savings, and really does put the county at risk of hyperinflation (e.g. if China decides to dump all their dollars because they can see its value is being inflated away, this will cause a huge surge in the dollar supply which will drastically push up prices due to more money competing for the same items). Hyperinflation is what happened in Zimbabwe -- a loaf of bread costing one billion dollars.
The ECB can do something similar. Let's say for example Ireland decides to default on the money the ECB have lent us. The ECB can simply print more money. There is no need to freeze people's bank accounts and take their money because they can print it out of thin air. (You can only do this with 'fiat money'; if we were a prudent continent we would have backed the euro with gold to ensure it is a stable currency (i.e. its supply is limited) and has genuine value).
I'm rambling, but in a nutshell I am trying to say the ECB can print money to get itself out of any problem, so they don't need to freeze out bank accounts and take our money. They can just print more of it. The risk of all this is hyperinflation but a lot of economists don't think it is likely to happen.
Ireland can't do this by the way -- we aren't supposed to print euros -- so in theory our government could freeze our bank accounts.
Note I am not an economist, I just love economics!