Philip Bushill-Matthews, MEP for Warwickshire, on.....the Euro

Phillip Bushill Matthews, MEP for Warwickshire, writes for The Observer

16 March 2009

THE Euro has now been going for ten years.

Launched with a great fanfare in 1999, the Euro promptly sank by 10 per cent against the British Pound. At one stage a Euro was worth less than 60p and I well remember the jeers in the UK press: it was clear to us back in Britain that the writing was already on the wall.

 
But in the intervening years the writing has changed. The Euro ended 2008 worth around £1. Progressively the Euro has been taken on by more EU countries. The original 12 comprising 'Euroland' have become 16.

The response of the Euro-sceptics has been predictable. Ten years ago the argument ran that the Euro would fail because it was too weak. Now apparently the Euro will fail either because is too strong or because the economies of some of the member countries are too weak.

 
I suggest that failure is not an option. The stronger Eurozone members, led by Germany and France, will lock together as they cannot allow their currency to fail. Meanwhile other EU countries are queuing to join, to avoid their own smaller currencies collapsing.

 
Two further points are worth making. Firstly, it is not in anyone’s interest to see the Euro fail. As the UK's largest trading partner, it is of no help to us if Europe goes into financial meltdown. We should all wish it well.

Secondly, none of the above is an argument for the UK to join the Euro. Our economy is very different from our continental cousins, and anyway British popular support is overwhelmingly in favour of keeping the Pound.

However we have no need to worry: with the UK recession officially flagged as the longest and deepest of any major western economy, we no longer meet the qualification to join.
Philip Bushill-Matthews
Warwickshire-based MEP

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