Twenty years after the first euro banknotes began to circulate, the European Central Bank (ECB) will launch a third series and the first in which it wants to actively involve citizens. To this end, the agency published a survey a month ago so that anyone who wanted to could choose the theme of the new money that will be printed from 2026 in the euro zone, although it is not a matter that is particularly arousing the interest of the Spanish.
Just over 16,000 people have voted in our country through the Bank of Spain’s website or the ECB’s own page since July 10, and they do not represent more than 6.3% of the total. This is three times less than the French and is also very far from the 15% that the citizens of Italy vote for. And nothing to do with the Germans. Perhaps because they are aware that their country is the largest economy in the Eurozone, or perhaps because the influence of the Bundesbank on the decisions that the ECB adopts in Frankfurt (it is not by chance either) has been shown to be far superior to that of the rest of the central banks. of the other countries, but the truth is that the image of the future banknotes of the euro zone concerns the German citizens to a much greater extent. Their vote represents 41.7% of the total, with close to 106,200 people until August 8, and this contrasts with the percentage that the German population represents over the whole of the euro zone, which is below 20%. . Spain, with 48 million inhabitants, accounts for 11% of the total.
However, the body chaired by Christine Lagarde has hired the services of a company that will poll European citizens in an equitable manner to ensure that all countries are represented in the final result. Public voting will be open until August 31. and whoever wishes to vote will have to express their opinion on seven themes that have been pre-selected to illustrate the future paper. It is about birds, rivers, European nature, innovation and the future of the Union, culture, hands as a concept of community and about European values.
Regarding the profile of the participants, the ECB highlights that six out of ten were men and that the age range with the greatest weight to date is between 25 and 39 years, with 37.3% of responses, ahead of from the range of 18 to 24 years, with 31.4%, and from the range between 40 to 54 years, with 13.7%.
There are currently two series of banknotes in circulation, the first issued in 2002 and the second between 2013 and 2019, from which the 500-euro banknote was withdrawn.