TURKEY:European Union countries have struck Turkey off the map of Europe as represented on new euro coins, prompting protests from some lawmakers about a bias against the potential future EU member.
The European Commission proposed Turkey and other countries on the EU's borders should feature on a new series of EU coins. But the final design approved by EU governments excluded Turkey whose membership of the bloc is opposed by some European countries such as France.
"Clearly the council [ of EU member states] is not embarrassed that the new European map should include, as well as Ukraine and Moldova, some dictatorships such as Belarus or authoritarian ones like Russia," European Parliament MEPs Marco Cappato and Marco Pannella said in a statement. "But it refuses to feature a democratic country like Turkey with which accession negotiations are under way," the two Italians said.
A European Commission spokeswoman confirmed the original design featuring Turkey had been changed by the council. "The design which has been adopted is not exactly what we proposed . . . but this is design we have," she said.
The design has been used for coins issued by new euro zone member Slovenia, which joined the now 13-country currency group earlier this year. The new-look coins will also be used by Malta and Cyprus.
