Reading the news over breakfast in a Krakow hotel, about the next big enlargement headache...if you thought Poland was big to swallow!
As suspension of EU Turkey negotiations loom, as Turkey is set to refuse to respond to an EU deadline to open its ports to Cyprus, I recall meeting in Brussels a group of French campaigners who have found an innovative use for the euronote: as a pan-European voting slip for situations when national governments fail to oblige with an immediate referendum or election. The group, Rayez la Turquie, argues that against the wishes of Europe's citizens European leaders are marching the EU towards Turkish integration with Europe. There is apparently going to be a referendum in France on this, but not for several years, and having passed through all the various preconditions, Turkey's membership might then already be a fait accompli. Few if any of the other member states will be holding referenda. The campaigners' solution? Use the Euro note is a signal of protest by crossing out with a ballpoint pen the Turkey that appears in the bottom hand corner of the reverse side of the note, which is decorated with a map ofEurope. "Cross Turkey out" is the campaigners' rather direct slogan - what, pray, would it translate to in German? Rayez la Turquie assures Turkophobes that the notes will remain legal tender - "they cannot refuse the money" - particularly if the cross is a subtle one. They hope, perhaps optimistically, that from a European population 65% against Turkish membership - 350 million - at least one million people are committed enough to vandalize the currency. At a defacing rate of 100 notes a month, that's 1.2 billion euro notes with Turkey crossed out in 12 months. With the average European poll producing only a million votes either way, what politician could resist such an avalanche of protest?The group's jolly ideas opens the horizons. For recondite observers of euroland monetary politics, there is the opportunity to cross out the central bank chief and substitute one's own candidate. Anglophobes who thinkBritain is a retardant to the European project can cross out the UK - but that could be confusing as British eurosceptics - those with euro notes in their possession - might take to doing that too. Crossing out the euro symbol itself would be a less ambiguous signal.
