EU to redesign euro coins

The European Union will redesign the euro coins to reflect the bloc’s massive eastward expansion last year when it absorbed 10 nations that are not depicted on the map of Europe shown on the current coins.

Euro notes show a map of the 25-nation EU, but coins only the 15 nations that formed the bloc up to May 1, 2004, when Cyprus, Malta and eight East European nations joined.

The EU finance ministers agreed future coins should either show a larger Europe or another common symbol reflecting a bigger EU.

EU Finance Commissioner Pedro Solbes will make design recommendations next month.

Solbes was also asked to look into diverging euro-zone growth data in the first quarter when Germany posted its strongest growth in four years while Italy slipped into recession and the Dutch economy, too, shrank.

In the first quarter, Germany’s posted a 1% growth rate, breaking out of the 0.1 contraction of the last quarter of 2004, while Italy’s economy shrank by 0.5% in the first quarter.

The EU economy has been buffeted by high oil prices and an expensive euro in the past year.

Last year, Estonia, Slovenia and Lithuania joined the EU’s Exchange Rate Mechanism, which limits their currency fluctuations and is a waiting room for euro membership. This year, Latvia, Malta and Cyprus joined the ERM.

The euro became the currency of 300 million Europeans in 12 nations – Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland – in 2002.

Today, the finance ministers were to debate a joint EU strategy to finance development aid and debt relief for poor nations as well as the financing of the EU in the 2007-2013 period.