Euro rates much higher

You say that the cooling in support for the single currency has mirrored the decline in the economy over the past 12 months (The euro one year on, December 27). But the euro-area economy has not declined. Euro-area GDP has risen more slowly, but still rose 0.8% over the latest measured year.

And support for the euro has risen since the introduction of notes and coins last January. The four percentage point fall in support between spring and autumn was not enough to cancel out the rise in support since the previous autumn, according to the six-monthly Eurobarometer poll. Overall, support for the euro rose from 61% to 63% over the last year.

Every country in the EU now has a majority in favour of the single currency except one - Britain. In the euro-area, support is up from 68% to 71% since the introduction of notes and coins. Not one euro-area country shows a majority in favour of a return to its old currency. This puts into some perspective the grumbling about transitional price rises and the cyclical slowdown. Euro-area inflation is running at just 2.2%. And there are now majorities for the euro in both non-euro-area Sweden and Denmark. Uniquely among the 15 EU members, the UK has a majority (61%) against the single currency.

This attitude seems to have little to do with the euro. It is more to do with a generalised scepticism about the EU. Britain also has the lowest proportion saying that EU membership is a good thing - only 31% compared with an average of 55%. In the last European parliament elections, our turnout was half the European average and the lowest in the EU. The causes of Britain's oddity - "fog in channel, continent cut off" - would be well worth a two-page special examination.
Christopher Huhne MEP
Economic spokesman,
European Lib Dem and Reformist Group
Chuhne@europarl.eu.int