Why Britain should join the euro success story - - by James Bovington
The British press has been strangely silent on two recent important developments in Europe. The first is the abolition of frontier controls between the new member states and western EU members as the Schengen agreement was extended to allow unimpeded travel throughout most of the continent, with pointless police passport checks at airports disappearing at the end of March. A few weeks earlier Malta and Cyprus, two former British colonies, adopted the euro. As a side-effect of Cyprus's adoption of the euro, the European currency is being used in UK military bases there retained under the 1960 independence agreement and some 10,000 British service personnel and families are using euros daily – they're still British.
The euro is now the world's leading currency for international debt transactions and is second choice for reserve. Forty countries have an official money link with the euro and the pound follows the euro in its movement against the dollar. Some 22 per cent of world economic activity is in euros compared to 27 per cent for the dollar and the euro has allowed a marked degree of banking integration increasing Europe's competitiveness.
The reality is such that it is difficult to see the Bank of England even getting a seat at the world currency top table where decisions are likely to be taken by the USA, the Eurozone and China.
Furthermore, our self-imposed euro exile on grounds that are supposedly exclusively economic is starting to look like a permanent refusal to participate in what has been Europe's success story. European integration will continue – it is in our national interest to be completely involved. Meanwhile we are saddled with a low value currency and higher interest rates that will fuel inflation as imports rise. So much for the economic stability that Mr Brown seeks.
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