IN Italy they cannot help engaging in a spot of schadenfreude over the news that Germany's economic performance last year would not have qualified it for participation in the EU single currency. You see, the German finance minister Theo Waigel has not been slow to suggest that Italy is unlikely to qualify, causing some displeasure in Rome's corridors of power.

Reports from London quote the Italian Corriere della Sera as writing: "Jesus Christ is dead (sic), Karl Marx is dead and even Germany doesn't fare very well." It adds: "If monetary union were to happen today, not even the Federal Republic, mother of all economic virtue, would find itself up to scratch on some criteria."

Bertie Ahern might spare one of his wry smiles for the news. It was he who used the term "sweetheart deal" to describe the support Germany gave to the French franc during the currency crisis but denied to the pound.