[A-List] UK eurozone membership: PR effort

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Blair appoints euro task force to convince public of single currency

FRASER NELSON AND JASON BEATTIE
The Scotsman, 26 June 2003

TONY BLAIR has appointed a team of his most trusted pro-euro ministers to
lead the drive towards entering the European single currency.

The Prime Minister will today disclose that he has created a European
strategy committee which will meet regularly to co-ordinate the pro-European
effort across all government departments.

Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has been co-opted to chair the committee,
although he is understood to be among the least enthusiastic of its members.

The mission of Mr Blair's hand-picked group, which held its inaugural
meeting on Tuesday, is to work on the "route map" which Mr Brown laid out
for Britain to join the euro. The various hurdles set by the Chancellor
include changes to the housing market, mainly persuading homeowners to
switch to European-style, fixed-rate mortgages. They will also focus
controversial proposals for negotiating public sector pay on a local basis -
a deal which could see some Scottish civil servants paid less than the
average UK wage.

Most importantly, the committee will also start tentative work on a
referendum campaign, establishing how best to overcome the British public's
longstanding hostility to the euro.

Mr Blair has restricted its membership to a handful of the most pro-euro
ministers. They include Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, Charles Clarke,
the Education Secretary, Peter Hain, the Leader of the Commons, and Lord
Falconer of Thoroton, the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs whose new
department includes the Scottish Office.

In addition to his responsibilities for Wales, Scotland and the English
legal system, Lord Falconer is expected to handle the mechanics of a euro
referendum. Mr Blair's pro-European ministers are expected to hold the poll
just after the next general election, due in 2005.

The committee's first hard task is to examine a white paper, to be published
before August, which addresses how to boost Labour flexibility ahead of euro
entry.

Since Mr Brown's assessment three weeks ago, there has been little sign of
pro-European activity from the government, with one senior Labour politician
admitting yesterday it could be "months rather than weeks" before the
campaign takes shape. In a pep talk to government members today, the Prime
Minister is expected to say that every government department must take the
pro-European message to every part of the country.

In theory, this would give Alistair Darling the task of selling the euro in
Scotland. However, Mr Darling, whose main job is UK transport minister, is
unlikely to add the campaigning dimension to his already full workload.

George Foulkes, the MP who was recently appointed by the Prime Minister as a
cheerleader for the euro cause, said Mr Blair's push for the single currency
will soon reach Labour's grassroots members.

"Meetings will be held in constituencies where MPs, activists and
representatives from the trades unions will discuss how to get things
moving," he said.