Brown insists he is ‘pro-Europe’
Despite widespread speculation that the Treasury has already decided to say ‘no’ to the euro, the Chancellor this morning is still refusing to give anything away, but he has sought to allay the fears of the pro-euro lobby by stressing that he is ‘pro-Europe’.
In an interview with ITV’s ‘Sunday Programme’, Mr. Brown said it was in the national economic interest “not to reject the euro out of hand” which, he claimed, the Tories would do on grounds of “dogma”.
But he also said it would not be right to enter without the most “rigorous and comprehensive assessment”, as undertaken by his department.
The decision on the euro has to be announced at the beginning of June and the Chancellor is adamant that the statement will be made first in the House of Commons.
According to Mr. Brown, 18 detailed studies will be produced of the work undertaken by the Treasury over the last two years and he then expects a “very full public debate” to take place on the “conclusions” of these studies.
But he stressed that he was and always had been “pro-Europe.”
“By history, by geography, by economics, we’re very much part of Europe,” he said. “Half our trade is with the rest of the European Union.”
He believed “huge possibilities” existed in Europe for the single market to deliver greater prosperity “to rival that achieved in America with its single market”:
And he thought the economic reform agenda for Europe was absolutely critical to tackling unemployment and to raise growth rates.
As to how important the future role of the UN would be, Mr. Brown insisted that all the international institutions, including the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation, as well as the UN, would be shown to be “crucial” in the times ahead.
The Chancellor believed that the three main problems currently facing the world community were the reconstruction of Iraq, the Middle East peace settlement and the relationship between the developed and the developing world.
And he believed that all the decisions which now had to be taken, including that of the euro, had to be taken in the context of “globalisation”.
