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Self-made millionaire Paul Sykes has come to public notice in the UK due to his passionate campaign to keep Britain out of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Sykes has amassed personal wealth totalling 350 million pound sterling. He began his career with an operation which broke up buses and sold on the parts, but moved into other areas including property development and internet services. Sykes believes strongly that EMU membership would be damaging to the nationhood of the UK and is prepared to give 25 million pounds sterling to the campaign against membership.

Austria is facing the need to meet the Maastricht criteria for membership in the European economic and monetary union amidst a budget deficit. The deficit, predicted to increase at 5.3% of gross domestic product in 1995, must be reduced to 3% to satisfy the criteria for union membership. Calls for reduction in social security expenses as against tax increase caused the collapse of the 1995 coalition tasked to handle the budget deficit., The pressures of meeting the Maastricht criteria and a depressed economy have subdued the excitement at joining the EU. Austria has a headache, or several. Sobered up after the excitement [...]

PARIS IT SEEMS horribly familiar: the French government is promising big savings to prepare the country for the introduction of a single European currency in 1999. The unions are vowing [...]

ITALIAN prime ministers have a habit of catching Mrs Margaret Thatcher by surprise. Five years ago, at a European Community summit in Milan, Mr Bettino Craxi obliged her to vote [...]

Sweden's prime minister is struggling to win a yes to joining the euro EVEN for the joggers picking their way through the blueberries along the quiet forest paths outside Stockholm [...]

As Europe's problems mount, so the prospects for Britain joining the euro retreat PERHAPS galvanised by the prime minister's apparent euro-fervour at the Labour Party conference a fortnight ago, the [...]

Changes, in currencies, their appearances and denominations, occur frequently in many countries around the world. Numismatists relish in them and look forward to the opportunities they might bring. Citizens of [...]

Since 1999, the tumbling euro has offered market pundits a profusion of topics to mull over, ranging from the determinants of currency movements to the do's and don'ts of central [...]

This paper examines the impact that the European Union (EU) has exerted on Spanish economic activity. The empirical analysis is conducted using variance decompositions and historical decompositions derived from a [...]

If you are looking for sleaze, forget Lord Hamlyn. Forget, also, Lord Sainsbury and the no doubt soon-to-be Lord (Christopher) Ondaatje. Their £2m apiece gifts to the Labour Party may [...]

Europe's leaders are under mounting pressure to spell out how they intend to enlarge membership of the EU to the reform democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. The entry of [...]

stockholm GORAN PERSSON always knew he faced an uphill task in persuading Sweden's wary voters to embrace the euro. The Social Democratic prime minister now faces an even trickier job [...]

copenhagen THE Danes' rejection of the euro, by 53% to 47%, was a brutal blow for their Social Democratic prime minister, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, who has run the country since [...]

brussels After Denmark's rejection of the euro, and with enlargement looming, the European Union must learn to live with dissent THE rule used to be that the European Union made [...]

The euro-referendum knock-on The Danes vote on September 28th on whether to join Europe's single currency. Other Nordic countries, and even the Balts, are watching THE top brass in Brussels [...]

Greece has won acceptance as the twelfth member of the European Monetary Union, leaving the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark as the only EU members not using the euro. Greece [...]

The troubled euro and EMU rules are posing problems for the Emerald Isle. But Michael Wilson is certain that with Irish luck and good management, obstacles will be overcome There [...]

Hilary Barnes studies opinion polls in Denmark and Sweden on whether to join European economic and monetary union, and finds that their future membership is far from certain The governments [...]

Is Britain's absence from the European single currency really likely to deter foreign investors? FOR many years governments of both parties have boasted about Britain's success in attracting foreign direct [...]

Sceptics pretend that we still have a choice over Europe. It is a dangerous deception. Let us look forward a few years. Prime Minister Blair has been comfortably re-elected. It [...]

So who needs the euro? PERHAPS it is just a summer fancy. But Bagehot has had the distinct impression of late that Britain is walking a bit taller in the [...]

The British insurance market is hustling to prepare for European Monetary Union, even though the government has ruled out immediate U.K. entry into the system. London-based insurers and brokers must [...]