Europeans finally get to vote! Brussels has discovered democracy. Do they get to vote on the war in Ukraine? No. Immigration? No. Sanctions on Russia? No. The endless climate regulations coming out of Brussels? No. Do they get a referendum on whether they even WANT the European Union to continue swallowing national sovereignty? Certainly not. But the European Central Bank has graciously decided that the people may express their opinion on what pictures should appear on the next euro banknotes. This is what democracy has been reduced to in Europe. You may not decide the policies that govern your life, but please select your favorite bird.
The ECB is currently allowing the public to rank ten preselected designs for the next generation of euro banknotes. The choices have already been narrowed to two themes: “European culture” and “Rivers and birds.” More than 1,200 designers originally applied, 25 were invited to produce designs, and an independent jury of 21 experts selected the ten finalists. Now the public gets its little moment of participation before the ECB Governing Council makes the FINAL decision around the end of 2026. The ECB itself says public opinion will merely be one of several inputs alongside the jury’s conclusions and a technical assessment. So even when they finally allow you to vote on the appearance of your own money, THEY STILL HAVE THE FINAL SAY.
Christine Lagarde declared that euro banknotes are “one of the most tangible expressions of Europe” and that the new designs will reinforce a “shared identity.” There is the entire problem in two words: shared identity. What identity? Europe is not a nation. It never has been. A Greek is not a Finn. An Italian is not an Estonian. A Spaniard is not a German. Europe contains different languages, histories, cultures, religions, traditions, economies, and national experiences stretching back centuries. Brussels has spent decades attempting to manufacture a single political identity from the top down, and even designing a piece of paper exposes how impossible that project really is.
Look at what they have selected for the “European culture” notes. Maria Callas appears on the €5, Beethoven on the €10, Marie Curie on the €20, Cervantes on the €50, Leonardo da Vinci on the €100, and Bertha von Suttner on the €200. Immediately you encounter the problem Brussels can never solve. Where is YOUR country? Where is YOUR history? Where is the person your nation believes represents its culture? Twenty countries use the euro, and this proposed series has only six denominations. Somebody will be excluded because there is no such thing as a single national European culture that can be represented on six pieces of paper.
They have already stumbled into controversy over something as basic as Marie Curie’s name. Polish MEP Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus objected to the way the ECB identified her and pressed the institution to recognize her Polish heritage and birth name, Skłodowska. Lagarde eventually responded that the ECB would refer to her as “Marie Curie (born Skłodowska)” while it continued considering how names might appear on the notes. There you have it. They cannot even put ONE famous European on a banknote without immediately encountering national identity because national identity actually EXISTS.
This is why the alternative is birds and rivers. The ECB’s own research found that people considered nature “neutral,” “safe,” “borderless,” and unlikely to create controversy. They have been forced toward politically neutral wildlife because depicting actual European civilization exposes the fact that Europe is composed of independent nations.
And even then Brussels cannot resist putting itself on the money. Under the “Rivers and birds” theme, the reverse sides would feature the European Parliament, European Commission, European Central Bank, Court of Justice, European Council, and European Court of Auditors. They apparently could not find enough room for every European nation, but somehow they found room for every EU bureaucracy.
The €10 would carry the European Commission. The €20 would carry the ECB. The €50 would carry the EU Court of Justice. These institutions increasingly exercise enormous power over Europeans who cannot directly remove many of the officials making the decisions. Yet the institutions themselves are being elevated into symbols worthy of appearing on the currency. The nation disappears and the bureaucracy becomes the identity.
The first euro notes avoided this problem deliberately. They depicted imaginary architectural bridges, windows, and gateways rather than actual national monuments because selecting real monuments would have immediately created political arguments over which countries were represented.
This is government by consultation rather than consent. They ask your opinion after deciding the boundaries of what you are permitted to choose. You may select Design A or Design B, but you may not question the institution making the decision. You may vote for Beethoven or a bird, but nobody asks whether the ECB should possess this degree of power in the first place.
The more Brussels attempts to force political uniformity, the stronger the resistance will become. We are watching nationalist and anti-establishment parties rise throughout Europe precisely because people do not want their nations reduced to administrative districts beneath a centralized European government. You cannot erase centuries of national identity with a regulation from Brussels or a portrait on a €20 note.
The most amusing part is that this supposed democratic exercise perfectly demonstrates why the European project is failing. They will let Europeans vote on what their money LOOKS like while the institutions retain control over what that money IS, how it is managed, and ultimately the monetary policies imposed upon every member of the eurozone.
Here is your democracy. Pick a bird.