Europe

Home page

Europe

EU states wipe Turkey off euro coin map

25 September 2007 15:32 (UTC +04:00)

Two MEPs have dug up papers revealing that an up-dated design to show states newly adopting the single currency has been altered.
The European Commission proposed a map of Europe as far east as the Caspian Sea, including the whole of Turkey. But a private meeting of national governments grouped in the European Council indulged in some colonial-style redrawing. EU member Cyprus was squeezed into the revised design by shunting it hundreds of kilometers west of its true location below Turkey to lie next to Crete.
â€œThe council has deliberately and secretly wiped Turkey from the new face of the euro,â€ said Marco Cappato and Marco Pannella, Italian Liberal MEPs, in a statement. They are angry that the design shows â€œdictatorships, such as Belarusâ€, but not â€œa democratic country like Turkey with whom accession talks are ongoingâ€./APA/