Sylvia Bourdon

Sylvia Bourdon
Born 1949 (age 65–66)
Cologne, Germany
Occupation Remediation company owner
Known for Activism

Sylvia Bourdon (born 1949 in Cologne, Germany) is a French activist who speaks four languages and is an expert in French art and design.

Career

In 1985, she began an eleven-year effort to hold a contest for the European Community's most talented artists to design the then new European currency and have the entries judged in a 12-nation referendum. The "Graphic Ecu Competition" officially launched in April 1993 and, at one point, had twelve European central banks participating. After the contest ended in 1996, none of the contests' 97 banknotes and 44 coin designs were used for the new European currency. Bourdon later sued the European Union over its decision to call the single currency the Euro instead of the Ecu, the name inscribed in the Maastricht treaty.

References