Provocative proposal

Date: 05/03/1998

Efforts to bind the ancient warring tribes of Europe together through the use of a shared single currency have run into a spot of bother.

Greek United Left MEP Alexandros Alavanos has demanded that the famous marbles which adorned the front of the Athens Parthenon should figure on one side of the euro coins which will eventually circulate in his country.

Nothing wrong with that, you might think, given that all countries have the express right to customise the single currency with a splash of national colour.

However, the particular artefacts to which Alavanos refers are currently housed in the British Museum in London and are at the centre of a long-running dispute between Greece and the UK.

“The reproduction of these Parthenon sculptures which today are in the possession of the British Museum will give our demand for their return to Greece a larger and longer-lasting dimension,” proclaimed the MEP.

Given that neither Greece nor the UK will be in the first wave of member states adopting the euro, one hopes they will be able to find the time to sort out their differences before the crunch comes.