Euro: CBI welcomes delay
The representative body of British business has welcomed Gordon Brown's decision to delay a referendum on entry into the euro until at least 2004, but welcomed the chancellor's positive approach to future entry.
‘We welcome the rigour of the chancellor’s assessment and agree that further sustainable convergence is necessary before ministers put the question to the country,’ said Digby Jones, director general of the Confederation of British Industry.
‘No government should force the facts to fit a predetermined point of view and we are pleased with measures put in place to achieve convergence.’
‘It is good for business that the chancellor left other countries in no doubt about the UK’s commitment to the European Union,’ the CBI chief added. ‘But this is not a one-way street. If EU countries want the UK to join a successful euroland, they should be redoubling efforts to make the euro-zone more globally competitive. Mr Brown is rightly making EU reform a centrepiece of UK government policy.’