Now, let’s be franc

claire daley, 14 July 2008

Brussels’ ever tightening grip on EU member states has seen supranational powers creep into the daily lives of ordinary Europeans. This loss of local power has eroded regional identities. However, some of Europe’s citizens are taking a stand against the surge of Brussels’ influence; battling the tide of EU domination in small, but hugely significant, ways.

For example the French village of Collobrières, a community of 1,600 inhabitants nestled in the heart of Provence and famed for its cork production and annual chestnut festival, has become the unexpected home of a protest against increasing EU integration.
The regions cork oak tree (Quercus suber) is valued for its capacity to battle the harsh Mediterranean conditions; defending itself against droughts and temperature fluctuations. The village of Collobrières is displaying a similar resilience, battling the harsh monetary conditions; defending itself against currency fluctuations.
This is because since 1st April 2008, the village of Collobrières has revived the French franc, despite the fact that France’s original currency was displaced by the euro in 2002 after France joined the eurozone. Like all eurozone members, France lost the ability to adjust its exchange rate to relieve uncertain economic conditions because the EU’s common currency is commanded by the European Central Bank which dictates interest rates for the whole zone. In opposition to monetary integration, Collobrières’ businesses have accepted 120,000 francs (about £14,602.56) since April 2008. However, the protest has its own sell-by-date because it will only be possible for Collobrières’ traders to exchange the franc bills until February 2012, when the Bank of France will cease to recognise the old currency.
A number of explanations have been given for the unexpected revival of France’s former legal tender:
Some indicate that the village is profiting from left-over currency, effectively enabling people to spend old bills which would otherwise be entirely worthless. For example there are reports of a woman who “recently appeared in the village with Fr15,000 (£1,500) that she had kept for the past six years” and accounts that when “elderly people die, their children often find bundles of banknotes under the mattress”. The village is, in part, motivated by profit. But this is not simply a community trading on false tender like a real-life transaction of monopoly money. The community is actually going part way to recovering lost earnings. The introduction of the euro caused inflation by allowing traders to round up costs, and as the New York Times comments, “people lost the concept of the value of money with the euro,”
However, the franc has not simply been restored for economic advantage. Inhabitants of Collobrières have cited nostalgia as a key motivation, recalling that the notes “depict French national heroes”. This nostalgia matters because it identifies the EU’s integration as a concern for ordinary Europeans. In the words of Ms. Amrane the mayor of Collobrières, “we lost an identity. We moved very quickly into Europe, maybe too quickly.”
The trading of francs in a minor village in rural France matters because it symbolises that ordinary Europeans are reacting to the EU’s democratic deficit and a Brussels that is increasingly out of touch.
This point is incredibly important given the EU’s current leadership – France currently holds the EU’s rotating Presidency. French President Nicholas Sarkozy has pledged to lead the Union through six-months of the “most ambitious” Presidency to date, with advancing European integration among his primary objectives. However, for evidence that Sarkozy might not be acting on the behest of the French people, you just have to look to the fact that despite France’s rejection of the EU constitution in 2005 France, like Britain, has been denied a referendum on the revived constitution– the Lisbon Treaty. The gap between EU leaders and an increasingly apprehensive European public is widening. Europe’s general public are being silenced, but some reservations are being voiced – like the protest in Collobrières.
Such protests are illuminating, but examples like Collobrières are not simply a light-hearted, and thrifty, real-life game of monopoly. Be warned – minor violations of EU rules have been known to infuriate the powers in Brussels – even circumstances which, far from being protests, are actually enacted to make life easier for Europeans. Such as in Ridley Road market in Hackney, where fruit and veg seller Janet Devers is facing criminal charges for ignoring the EU’s 2000 Directive on the compulsory use of metric weights and measures, despite Commission vice-president Günter Verheugen’s public assertion that the law was never meant to be enforced in this way, and the fact that the majority of London’s markets similarly trade in pounds.
Ms. Devers’ brother Colin Hunt was convicted of similar charges in 2002.
The siblings are not staging a grocery insurgence, but they are simply responding the demands of local customers who themselves protested against the use of metric measures and demanded a return to selling by the pound.
Many had hoped that the EU had moved on from enforcing ridiculous regulations, and destructive directives. The lesson of Collobrières might be that minor resistance can be effective. The French region relies on the cork market, obtained from the cork oak tree which is, as mentioned, crucially resilient to harsh climate and legendary for its ability to renew itself after being harvested. Let’s hope the traders of London’s markets are equally resilient after facing EU action which could effectively crop their trade.