By Jackie Storer BBC News Online Political Staff

Well Europe Minister Denis MacShane believed he had the answer.

To the bemusement of hundreds of afternoon commuters and tourists passing through Westminster London Underground Station on Monday, the witty Labour MP read them a poem - in German.

Dr MacShane brought the concourse to a standstill with his rendition of Hans Magnus Enzensberger's Optimistic Little Poem (Optimistisches Liedchen).

These pathetic attempts to sell Europe to the public bring the whole thing into disrepute Martin Callanan Tory MEP

The verse is among works chosen from all 14 of Britain's EU partners to be displayed in original and translated versions on London Underground trains.

Commuters will also be handed out free booklets of poems.

Dr MacShane was unperturbed that the German ambassador Thomas Matussek and the French deputy ambassador Stephane Gompertz were looking on.

Calming influence?

He argued that the project was a better way of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the UK's links with the EU than "a big pompous speech or boring ceremony".

And he hoped the eight-week campaign, funded by �20,000 from the Foreign Office, will "calm-down" anti-European sentiment in British politics.

MacShane: British people are the most 'poetical' in Europe

But Tory Euro MP Martin Callanan described the initiative as "ridiculous".

"People will think it's a waste of money," he told the Evening Standard.

"These pathetic attempts to sell Europe to the public bring the whole thing into disrepute."

But Dr MacShane was unrepentant.

Fun

He told BBC News Online: "Just how do you make the 30th anniversary of Britain coming into the EU something that would connect to Brits?

"The British people are the most poetical in the world - there are more amateur poets and historical poets living and working in Britain, and so we decided this would be a fun way of doing it.

"The alternatives were a big pompous speech or boring ceremonies - that really isn't our style.

"The EU has so many poets in it. The idea that we can lose our identity into one single Europe is a rather fatuous idea.

"Perhaps this will calm down the anti-Europe feeling in British politics."

Dante's Inferno

The inspiration behind the Tube poster campaign was Judith Chernaik, one of the organisers of the Poems on the Underground initiative.

She told BBC News Online: "It is very important for British people to recognise the common links with Europe and this is a good occasion for doing it.

"When you are stuck on a train and things are going wrong, there is nothing better than to read some poetry."

Among the poems featured in the campaign is the opening lines of Dante's Inferno, and Bertolt Brecht's Everything Changes, with a translation by Dr MacShane.