Les partisans britanniques d’une adoption de l’euro relèvent la tête, comme l’observent Simon Tilford, chef économiste du Centre for European Reform -CER- et Philip Whyte, senior research fellow au CER dans une tribune libre publiée dans le Guardian du 14 octobre
For the past five years, the issue has been politically dormant in the UK. But proponents of membership have started to make their voices heard again. The credit crunch, they argue, has revived the case for joining the euro. Various claims are advanced in support of this claim. One is that the UK economy is now so synchronised with the euro area that, as Willem Buiter, professor of European political economy at the LSE, puts it, "the country looks like a suburb of Frankfurt". Another is that the credit crunch has exposed how bad an independent currency is for financial stability. A third is that it has so discredited the "Anglo Saxon" model of capitalism that the UK should rid itself of all its last vestiges the better to consummate its links with the EU.
Source : www.cer.org.uk (« This is no time to listen to the siren call of the euro, The credit crunch will prove whether the single currency zone can survive without a complete political union”)
Steve Richards, éditorialiste du quotidien The Independent, indique dans une tribune publiée mardi 28 octobre que les tensions entre le gouvernement britannique et la Banque d’Angleterre, qui a obtenu son indépendance sous le gouvernement travailliste de Tony Blair et Gordon Brown, ne cessent de croître dans un contexte de crise financière accompagnée d’une menace de sévère récession en Grande-Bretagne. Le pouvoir de Melvyn King, le gouverneur de la Banque d’Angleterre, n’a cessé de se renforcer aux dépens du pouvoir politique élu démocratiquement. Steve Richards en conclut que l’entrée de la Grande-Bretagne dans la zone euro permettrait de résoudre les contradictions entre le gouvernement et la Banque d’Angleterre :
I wonder how long it will be before a traumatised senior minister thinks the following : "This wretched independence for the Bank is the worst of all worlds, yet it would make matters even worse to revert to the old arrangements. Therefore the least risky course is to join the euro". If the arrangements aimed at stabilising the currency are now a source of turbulence, and a return to the old system would cause even more storms, there is no obvious alternative option. That great sleeping issue, Britain’s membership of the euro, will be waking soon.
Source : "At this rate, it wont be long before were joining the euro", The Independent du mardi 28 octobre 2008. http://www.independent.co.uk/
Mais cette opinion n’est pas partagée par tout le monde. Dans leur article du Guardian, Simon Tilford et Philip Whyte (du Center for European Reform), soulignent que les tensions internes à la zone euro doivent inciter la Grande-Bretagne à en rester éloignée.
The EU is not a unitary state, and no monetary union has yet survived outside a political union. It is possible to make a powerful case for Britain joining the eurozone. But the case for joining now, just when the viability of the euro is set to be severely tested, is weak.
