Jersey & The Euro

There was a considerable amount of speculation, immediately after the elections in the UK in May this year, that the Labour government would move swiftly to organise a referendum to test the views of the British electorate on whether or not Britain should join the European Monetary Union and adopt the euro in place of the British pound. That this hasn't yet happened is probably due to the fact that the Treasury will find it hard to demonstrate that the British economy now meets the five economic tests set by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1997 as being prerequisites for entry. In particular, the requirement for clear and unambiguous evidence of current and sustainable convergence of the British economy with that of the rest of the "eurozone" presents a very high hurdle.