Discepancies in new EU states spelling ‘EURO’
At the Dutch city of Cheveningen EU officials have agreed to look at how ‘euro’ is being spelt in the new states which joined the Union after central bankers noted several discrepancies.
The European Central Bank’s president, Jean-Claude Trichet raised the issue with all the finance ministers and central bankers from the member states at the meeting.
“The fact that, having a single currency” he said “ is that we have the same spelling … seems to be frankly natural,”.
“We have the same bank notes all over Europe … and it’s important to stick in our view to stick to this decision,”. Trichet noted that ministers had passed a law in 1997 on how the euro should be spelt.
Those countries of concern are believed to be Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia. Latvia, for example, spells it ‘eiro’. Trichet would not name the countries in question.
The Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders indicated that EU lawyers had been asked to look at the issue with some urgency indicating that while not members of the currency union the correct spelling was referred to in all official documents.
“I thought it was clear – E – U – R – O – but in some new member countries it could be spelt a bit differently,” said the Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm. “We were surprised this problem existed at all but we solved it—you see how decisive finance ministers can sometimes be!”
