GREECE served notice on its E.U. partners that it is determined to join the European Economic and Monetary Union at the earliest possible date. The government of Prime Minister Costas Simitis accepted a 12.1% devaluation of the drachma and launched a program of drastic budget cuts and the privatization of at least 14 state companies as a down payment for entry into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, a necessary first step on the road to EMU. Conservative opposition leader Costas Karamanlis immediately attacked Simitis for failing to tell the electorate beforehand, and blue collar workers and pensioners are taking to the streets to protest the belt-tightening measures. But the Athens stock market cheered the shift by rising a record 24.8% during the week. NIALL FITZGERALD, chairman of the Anglo-Dutch consumer products conglomerate Unilever, criticized E.U. political leaders for not owning up to the ramifications of EMU. At a speech in Brussels he accused them of condescension toward the public and of failing to explain that the benefits from a single currency can only come if governments reform labor markets and reduce barriers to competition--and that this may lead to job losses in the short run. The politicians, he said, take the attitute of "Let's not trouble the poor little taxpayers with too much involvement or information..." FitzGerald warned of the fallout of that attitude: "Pretending that there are no problems may make for an easier life for a month or two; but it will store up horrific problems for the future."

LEADERSHIP of the European Central Bank remains in flux. France insists that the governor of the Bank of France, Jean-Claude Trichet, should take over as president when the ECB begins operation later this year. But Paris has gained few allies in its efforts to overturn the original consensus choice, Wim Duisenberg of Holland. With little more than a month remaining before the May summit which will confirm which countries will launch the single currency, reports of a compromise spring up as quickly as daffodils--but die off just as fast. Now a new dispute has emerged. The bank's governing directorate will have six seats, and France, Germany and Italy look likely to be permanent members. But Spain insists that it should get equal treatment, which would leave just two slots to rotate among the seven other initial EMU members. E.U. diplomats might find mediation between Serbia and Kosovo a simpler task than sorting out the nationalist demands of their own members.

SPAIN'S Tele 5 has launched an innovative effort to educate and inform viewers about Europe and to prepare them for the introduction of the single currency. Something called the Euromillion Game is broadcast daily on the Spanish TV channel at the peak lunchtime viewing hour, when children watch the box as their mothers prepare the midday meal. The game is divided into three sections with three contestants in the studio pitting their wits on general European knowledge, specialised subjects such as sport, show business, geography or history. The winner goes on to the third round with a viewer from home choosing three out of 24 numbered boxes, each hiding a different prize such as a trip, car, camera or cash. Since the program was launched two weeks ago, no one has picked the box with the grand prize, a check for a million euros--just over $1 million. Tele 5 concedes viewership has not been robust, but claims that "The figures are improving every day."