It may have been unauthorised and unsolicited - the creative homework of a junior official - but its indignant tone catches something of the frustrations of a continent weary of expressing gratitude, and increasingly determined to meet the outside world as partners rather than supplicants.
And yet, to the disgust of the commission and a handful of indignant small countries, the French and the Germans have persuaded their fellows to let them off the hook.
Like its male equivalent, the Americans dominated the event's early years, prompting calls for the competition to be changed to a US v the rest of the world affair, only for an indignant Europe to hit back in recent contests.