EUROVER:

Euro in big political trouble (DAVID HOWELL, 12/09/03, Japan Times)

British exporters, who used to complain endlessly about the high pound vs. the cheap euro, have now changed their tune. Some of the big Japanese carmakers in Britain were the loudest complainers, but they, too, have fallen silent. It is the high euro, not the high pound that is the challenge. Even the complaint that being outside the euro zone means greater currency volatility no longer applies as the pound sterling has shown far more stability than the euro, which has risen by no less that 50 percent against the dollar over the past two years. And who knows where it will go next?

The stage is thus set for further disarray and currency instability. The British increasingly are congratulating themselves on staying clear of the euro during these troubled times. The euro currency will probably not disintegrate, at least not for a while. New budgetary rules, which require yet another European treaty, will have to be drawn up and enforced to steady the situation.

But the whole episode is a sharp reminder that building a single currency zone, based on monetary union, to cover huge and diverse areas like Europe is full of risks and that there is nothing inevitable about the expansion and onward march of the currency.

On the contrary, the architects of the euro will now have their hands full ensuring its survival. A project that was supposed to unite Europe further has created divisions and sourness all round.

One can hardly wait to see how their joint military functions.

MORE:
Less than half show support for EU (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, 09/12/2003, Daily Telegraph)

Britain was by far the most negative state, with positive feelings tumbling to 28 per cent, but even the French were below half for the first time after months of battles with Brussels over tax cuts and illegal aid to ailing firms. [...]

Gisela Stuart, a Labour MP and Britain's sole voice on the 13-strong drafting "Praesidium", raised the pressure on Downing Street to stand firm on Britain's "red lines".

She said it was under no moral obligation to accept a text "riddled with imperfections" and rigged by "a self-selected group of the European political elite".

In a blistering pamphlet for the Fabian Society, German-born Mrs Stuart exposed the pretence that the wordy text is needed to tidy up the treaties or pave the way for EU expansion, saying "the real reason for the constitution - and its main impact - is the political deepening of the union".

She added: "Not once in the 16 months I spent on the convention did representatives question whether deeper integration is what the people of Europe want.

"The debates focused solely on where we could do more at EU level. Any representative who took issue with the fundamental goal of deeper integration was sidelined."

She said the secretive body chaired by Valery Giscard d'Estaing slipped through radical changes that had never been agreed, insisting on French documents to create confusion.

When the sole East European member dared to raise a dissenting voice he was told his vote "didn't count".

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 8, 2003 8:22 PM