Of euros and ewros

Malta is still two years away from adopting the euro as our national currency. In most other countries one would expect the debate to be on whether the euro is beneficial economically or not for the country. One would expect the debate to centre on the effect the euro will have on tourism, on the industry and on prices. It seems, however, that I will never cease to be surprised.

Instead of debating the euro economically we have decided to kick up a whole fuss over how to spell the name of this currency. Recently, the Council for the Maltese Language declared that the proper name in Maltese is ewro, which, of course, clashes with the 1997 decision by the EU which declared that, apart from Greece, everyone should use the spelling euro. Indeed, in an EU of 25 nations, where 10 are already in the eurozone and another 12 are in the pipeline, it is only us and Latvia that are creating a whole issue over such a silly matter.

I am all for the Maltese language; I believe that indeed we should be proud to have a language of our own and I believe that we should use it at every available opportunity. However, let us not go beyond reason. Practicality calls for our language to bend its rules a bit. Is it so tragic for us to spell euro without a w?

After all, English is far from a foreign language to us. It is an official language according to our very own Constitution. Therefore, if in this circumstance it is more practical to use the English version then so be it.

Let us not reduce such an important and historic step, that of Malta joining the common currency, to such a low level. If the Latvians think that their identity and language revolves around them spelling euro as eiro, I believe that our culture, identity and language is far deeper than spelling euro as ewro.