We will certainly take a beating if we stay out of the single currency

"We will certainly take a beating if we stay out of the single currency," says Niels Helveg Petersen, the pro- European Foreign Minister.But after the shock of Maastricht, which demonstrated the danger of ignoring public opinion, the government appears reluctant to take a lead in the debate. A new EU treaty, giving away more national sovereignty, is due to be signed in Amsterdam in June. Denmark must hold another referendum before ratification.If Danes vote "no" again, the future of the union could be thrown into disarray. By failing to ratify, Denmark would prevent implementation of the new treaty across Europe, thereby blocking further integration and stalling the process of enlargement.The social democrat-led coalition government is largely in favour of tying Denmark closer to the union. The Danes won opt-outs from monetary union, immigration and justice policy, European citizenship rules and defence co-operation.Now, the country is heading for another bout of soul-searching. The case is adding to the ferment over Denmark's EU membership, which is once again dominating the country's political agenda.Almost five years ago Denmark stunned the rest of Europe by saying "no" to the Maastricht treaty in a referendum which produced a vote of 50.7 per cent against.

And still they don't tell us what their European Union is for." Mr Krarup, who is also a member of the European Parliament - and a stalwart of the same anti-European party in Strasbourg as Sir James Goldsmith - is about to launch his revolution in court. "I think what we need," said Ole Krarup, concluding a long tirade against the European Union, "is a kind of revolution." "I don't mean a socialist revolution," adds Mr Krarup, a law professor at the University of Copenhagen and former firebrand of the Danish left "No, I mean some kind of democratic revolution The fact is that we Danes have been betrayed We have said `No' Yet the politicians are back again asking us to say yes. The Guggenheim wants to borrow Picasso's homage to the bombed Basque village as part of its inaugural exhibition, but the Reina Sofia says the painting is too fragile to be moved. A spokeswoman said this week the museum had received no formal request from the Guggenheim.. Her conservative successor, Esperanza Aguirre, thanked her for the initiative.The Guernica painting itself is at the heart of a tug-of-war between the Reina Sofia and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, a futuristic building by the American architect Frank Gehry due to open this summer. The Reina Sofia has tried to fill a gap by acquiring works from the artist's middle years, but recognises it will never be able to match the other collections.Untypically for Spain, "Operation Picasso" - the Socialists' most ambitious cultural project - survived last year's change in government, and the former culture minister, Carmen Alborch, attended the unveiling last week to remind everyone that it had been her idea. The bulk of the artist's work, from his young and old period, is in the Picasso Museum in Paris or that of Barcelona.

The acquisition of two drawings, two sculptures and three oil paintings crowns two years of negotiations during which three big Spanish banks put up the cash for the purchase - pounds 15m - in lieu of paying tax. Madrid's modern-art museum, the Reina Sofia Art Centre, has bought seven important works by Picasso from the artist's family at a price reckoned to be nearly half their market value, filling an important gap in the museum's collection. The Prime Minister, Alain Juppe, let it be known yesterday that he would not withdraw the offending "lodging" clause. Other commentators point out that Mr Le Pen will be delighted by the protests: they come from just the social elites which the FN accuses of betraying France.An uneasy truce may be declared when the law comes back to the National Assembly next week. But a halt must be called at some time to what they call the creeping "Le Pen-isation" of French politics.

It may be true the intelligentsia should have objected to the immigration laws before now, say the petition organisers. The new - and old - laws apply to other foreigners with no right of residence or obvious means of support in France, Mr Debre said. They can only enter if they have a certificate showing that they have somewhere to stay.Why, then, such a great furore? By the admission of those organising the protests, they are mostly aimed at the rise of Jean-Marie Le Pen's ultra-right and xenophobic Front National, after its victory in Vitrolles, near Marseilles, last week. They will simply be banned from holding "lodging certificates" in future.EU citizens and visitors from other countries, such as the US, who require no visa, do not fall under the regulations. The only new requirement is that the host must tell the authorities when his guests leave.Furthermore, as the Interior Minister, Jean-Louis Debre, pointed out yesterday in the Journal de Dimanche, there will be no jail sentences for French people who break the law. In fact, most of the provisions in the law have existed for 15 years and were originally introduced, by decree, by a Socialist government in 1982. In particular, the country's cultural and intellectual elite objects to a clause which would oblige anyone housing a non-touristic, non-European Union foreigner to obtain a certificate from the local authority.The suggestion is that this would turn France into a nation of informers and smacks of the kind of registration of Jews which was imposed by the Vichy regime during the Second World War.

Three more round robins, threatening deliberately to flout the proposed new law - from doctors, scientists and cartoonists - will be published in Liberation today. The ostensible object of the intellectual revolt is a draft law, due to be finalised in the National Assembly next week, which tightens existing restrictions on illegal immigration. A Zajedno leader, Zoran Djindjic, told supporters: "Let us give them a chance to show an intention to free the media and, if they fail to do that by 9 March, what else can we do but go out into the streets again?"Belgrade students who have also held daily protests said they would continue their demonstrations until the government sacked the university rector and prosecuted those responsible for annulling the local election results.. This means that if they write something which is not factually correct, we should react and demand the untruth be corrected."Ms Milentijevic, a newly appointed loyalist to President Slobodan Milosevic, added: "In view of the force and influence the media exert on the shaping of public opinion and government policy, their responsibility is exceptional." In its last crackdown on the foreign media in 1994, at the height of the war in Bosnia, Serbia refused to renew the accreditations of almost 20 foreign journalists.Although Serbia has no censorship, the main broadcast and print media are under strict state control. Belgrade - The government warned foreign journalists over their reporting of Serbia's political crisis yesterday as opposition parties girded for a battle with the authorities over press freedom.