A BRITISH Euro MP is outraged that Cyprus has not been included on the map of Europe depicted on the euro notes and coins even though the map stretches all the way to Moscow.
The government and the Central Bank said yesterday they had not noticed that Cyprus had been excluded but they would look into the issue today.
Chris Davies, a Liberal Democrat MEP for the north of England and member of the EU-Cyprus joint parliamentary committee, said that although Cyprus was close to EU membership and the Cyprus pound was pegged to the euro, the island had been omitted from the map.
In a press release issued yesterday, Davies said even though the map stretched as far as Moscow, “it stops just short of the island” but included eastern European candidate countries.
Davies said this was unacceptable. “At least in part, the common currency is a political project aimed at bringing together the people of Europe,” he said. “To become an EU member but not to feature as one on the map is bound to cause some resentment.”
Davies, who tabled a question at the European parliament on the issue, said that Pedro Solbes Mira, the EU’s economic and monetary affairs commissioner tried to explain away the problem by describing the design on euro coins as “a representation of Europe as opposed to a map of Europe”.
A close inspection of the map shows that although parts of north Africa are also included, albeit in white rather than green, the area where Malta, another candidate country, should be situated was shown as sea.
Davies also said Mira had said there was no intention to modify the design following enlargement.
“The design of notes and coins is frequently changed over time,” Davies said. “All that Cyprus needs is for the map to be extended by a millimetre to the east. If sense prevails that shouldn’t be too big a problem.”
Both Central Bank Governor Afxentis Afxentiou and a senior Finance Ministry source said yesterday they would be looking into the issue today.
“We were not aware of this,” the source said. “We will talk with the Central Bank and examine the matter. If the map stretches as far as Moscow there is no excuse for it not extending here.”
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
