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Paris -- As yet another step to the homogenization of Europe, the singular Euro currency will be
formally introduced in 2002. Thus Europe's sovereign currencies, the French Franc, the German
Mark and the Italian Lira, among others will merge into the single monetary Euro. While the
move may be fiscally prudent in the long run, it underscores the near total integration of the old
Common Market and European Community into the more formal fifteen member European
Union (EU).
Already shop and restaurant receipts are being presented in two denominations--the
national currency and the Euro. For example, a newspaper costing 7 Francs is also marked 1.07
Euros. But after 1 January 2002 the Franc will fade into the pleasant past, as will the other
individual national currencies.
When the Euro started formal trading last year, it was valued as $1.12 to the US dollar.
Smug Eurocrats proudly proclaimed their curency would soon challenge the dollar. Then the
Euro went to parity--approximately one to a dollar--making it easier, at least for Americans, to
figure out local prices. Today the EU's vaunted future financial foundation bobs like a cork at
just over 90 cents, a serious depreciation for a currency representing the West European
powerhouse economy.
As in all transitions there are gainers and loosers. For strong currencies such as the
German Mark, the Dutch Guilder and the French Franc, they loose; for the Italian Lira and the
Spanish Peseta, it's a gain. The British have prudently stayed on the sidelines during this whole
show, understanding that beyond surrendering financial sovereignty, they might be putting their
strong Pound Sterling into fiscal quicksand.
On a lighter side, tourists will no longer have the hastle of exchanging their dollars into
national currencies and, or moreover, have to keep up with the mental math of figuring that $100
equals 700 francs, whereas only a few years ago $100 bought only 500 Francs. Businesses on the
other hand will work with a single currency unit that does not flucutate within the EU.
When the Euro is introduced, the issue Bank will be the European Central Bank which
will print the currency with nouveau denominations. And contrary to the truly beautiful and
artistic Francs of old--already less interesting in recent years--there will be a common Euro
theme.
Having seen specimen currency in the Banque de France, I was amazed that all the
banknotes have doors and bridges. So instead of great authors, statesmen and scientists, we are
looking at varied types of portals and bridges! All generic and all, interestingly enough, devoid
of people. Sketches one would find at a technical college--academically correct and drawn but
lacking the beauty, grace and personality of design. Sterile symbolism comes to mind.
So it seems in the fiscal cargo cult of the Brussels bureaucratic planners, there are
bridges to the future or at least to the other side of the river. This monetary morphing of once
proud currencies will happily not totally effect the coins of the realm which will still reflect
traditional national symbols, alas in Eurocents instead of centimes or phennigs.
The Euro, of course, did not simply happen; sovereign European governments agreed to
this plan--this is not something that was foisted but rather finessed upon the political class who in
turn foisted it upon the people of happy Euroland.
While the Euro remains a done deal, I propose that the bridge currency reflect the
character of historic bridges in each of the individual still sovereign nations which comprise the
European Union. In other words, a common currency but issued through national banks using
traditional symbols. The splendid examples abound in a simple walk round Paris --where if it
must be bridges, there's grace, style, and individual personality. One can say the same for Rome.
Shall the Euro really be a bridge to the future or a fiscal bridge too far?
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
