Nej
The job of the European Central Bank is to make one set of interest rates fit 11 different economies across a continent: mission impossible. The monetary suit that?s sagging on the shoulders of its wearer in Ireland is turning out to be suffocating attire in Germany.
Sweden's emphatic nej yesterday to the euro suggests that the time has come for some new thinking about what the EU elites have wrought. If the admirable Danes and Swedes feel that the euro is a bent, and spent, penny, maybe the rest of us should be given a chance to comment on the future of the common currency. With the three largest economies in the euro zone — Germany, France and Italy — in recession, and the pact designed to prevent states from undermining the common currency disintegrating, someone has to demand accountability and alternatives.
Meanwhile, the chances of a British referendum on the euro now appear to be less than zero as rejection is guaranteed. However, the chances that Britain, Sweden and Denmark creating a currency bloc outside EMU are not as far fetched as many would have us believe. After all, they are three of Europe?s most dynamic economies. If Norway joined, and if Ireland dropped the euro, one might have the makings of a viable free trade zone.
