Section 6: Britain's Referendum Campaign over the Euro

Pre-reading questions:

1. Do you remember when the Euro was introduced?

2. Is it used only for clearing purposes?

3. Do any European countries use it in cash transactions now?

4. Has the UK joined this system by now?

5. Was the European Union created on the basis of the European Community?

6. When was the Community set up and when did the UK join the Community?

7. Is the UK a member of the European Union?

Skim and scan: Read the text quickly and say when approximately this article could be written.

This week the European Movement, Britain's oldest and most important pro-European lobby group, published a glossy document laying out a strategy for a referendum on British membership of the single European currency. The government merely says that it is willing to sign Britain up for the Euro when it becomes convinced that such a move would be in Britain's economic benefit.

But unofficially the pro-Europeans in the government are working to a much more definite timetable. They are assuming that a referendum will be called soon after a second election victory for Labour – an event already pencilled in for 2001. At that point the full weight of government will be behind the Yes campaign.

The European Movement has already set up a steering group to coordinate the referendum campaign, with good connections to 10 Downing Street. Representatives of the London office of the European Commission which provides a bit of money for the European Movement have been spotted at the planning sessions.

The movement's planning document says that the Yes campaign now needs to establish before the next general election 'a majority of the public who favour British participation'. That's a tall order, since currently a large majority is opposed.

Next month, the Treasury gets in on an act by launching an advertising campaign designed to tell Britons about the launch of the single European currency in 1999. Officially this is simply a 'familiarisation' exercise. But people involved with the campaign acknowledge that it contains an element of 'political education'. Others might call it propaganda.

The Noes campaign has also begun to get serious. There is no shortage of anti-European groups – 29 at the last count. Since the beginning of the year, a series of six lunches in the Attlee room of the House of Lords has gathered together all the principal «antis» from across the political spectrum to thrash out a plan of action. Out of this has grown support for Business for Sterling (BFS), which was officially launched on June 11th, 1998.

The aim of BFS is to attract serious money from businessmen and companies. BFS will put only the economic arguments against the single currency, and ignore politics. BFS already has the financial backing of several big businessmen such as Sir Stanley Kalms, the Chairman of Dixons. The new director of communications at BFS is from that electronic retailer, and they have already had 200 pledges of support.