BBC News | BUSINESS | British businesses and the euro

Welcome to Euro Watch, the first of a (hopefully) long series of weekly columns about Europe's single currency, the euro. Although this won't be a column just about British attitudes to the single currency, that is where I intend to start.

Friday's papers in Britain are giving extensive coverage to a British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) survey of the attitude of its members to the euro.

The survey shows that the business community is split down the middle on the issue. Of over 7,000 firms questioned, 38% want a commitment from the British Government to join, 36% want membership ruled out for the foreseeable future and 24% hedged their bets and want the position kept under review.

To campaign or not to campaign?

That may sound like a pretty anti-euro survey from exactly the kind of people the single currency is supposed to benefit, the business community.

UK police woman with blow-up euro ban note

So far the euro has made only a guest appearance on UK streets

But it is considerably more pro-euro than the British general public.

And it also marks an increasing level of polarisation within Britain's business community about the issue.

The leadership of the BCC seems to remain pro-euro and it is calling for the Government to 'promote the benefits' of the euro if it wants to retain the option of joining the single currency after the next election.

But the BCC will no longer campaign for or against membership of the single currency.

This is a very similar policy to the CBI, the other major business organisation in Britain, which has actually given up campaigning for Britain to join the single currency, partly because of what it sees as a failure to lead from the Government.

Danish daring

It makes for an interesting comparison with the situation in Denmark.

There, ahead of a referendum in September on whether the country should join the euro, the main business organisation Dansk Industri is campaigning for Denmark to vote yes.

The debate there is split much more evenly between the perceived economic benefits of the euro and the loss of sovereignty joining would involve.

Euro 'failure'

Yves Thibault de Silguy holding up euro symbol

The British find it difficult to understand the euro enthusiasm of Europeans on the continent

In Britain the debate is not just about the loss of sovereignty and political independence but also about the perception that the euro and Europe's economies are failures.

The steady fall in the euro's value is one major reason why it is seen as such a failure in Britain, but it isn't the only one.

Next week I'll be looking at some of the other reasons but until the euro starts recovering some of its lost value, it seems Britain's business leaders and even the Government will be keeping their powder dry.

And given this weeks further fall in the euro against sterling and the yen, they may have to keep it dry for quite some time to come.

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See also:

30 Mar 00 | Business
Growing business divide over euro

09 Mar 00 | Business
Greece asks to join the euro

30 Mar 00 | Business
Euro rates on hold

Links to other Business stories are at the foot of the page.


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