“Why on earth would we be forced to join the Euro to stay in the EU?”
Because Mr. Barraso says so, jake, that’s why. And as we all know, in matters European, what the unelected leaders say suddenly becomes fact.
I’m pleased to learn that I am not alone on AB, andy, in believing that the further we distance ourselves from this madness the better off we will all be.
The scaremongering that abounds when talk of our withdrawal is mentioned is preposterous. We hear such things as “Three million jobs depend on the EU”. No they don’t. Three million jobs may well depend on the export of goods and services to other EU countries. But those exports will not suddenly cease should we leave the Union. On the contrary, our businesses are likely to become far more competitive when we are unshackled from EU regulation. When they do they are likely to become more attractive to European (and indeed other) customers. As you quite rightly say, businesses trade where it most suits them.
Some will say that the multi-nationals (particularly US organisations) do not “think UK” when investing, but they “think Europe”. Once again, if the UK is more competitive than the rest of Europe the Americans will soon get a map out and find out where the UK is.
The suggestion by Mr Barraso that the future for all EU countries lies with the Euro indicates to me that he has not read the papers for a couple of weeks. It is most unlikely that the Eurozone will number as many as seventeen members by this time next year. If it does, what sort of financial state they will be in (including the more prosperous ones) will be interesting to behold. Never mind. Nothing must jeopardise the European project or its hapless currency and Mr Barraso’s ramblings demonstrate how out of touch the Eurocrats are with planet Earth.
There are plenty of nations clamouring to join the EU. Any one of them is more than welcome to our seat at the table.