If the UK ends up staying in the EU, will we have to join the euro?

Britain opted out of the European single currency under the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 but, asks Sean O’Grady, would our special status be retained if Article 50 is revoked?

Zoning out (AFP)

By common consent (now), the UK’s decision to “opt out” of the European single currency project 20 years ago was probably for the best.

It insulated the UK, to an extent, from the worst of the eurozone crises over the past decade or so, and it meant that interest rates as set by the Bank of England were more closely aligned to economic conditions in the UK. Thus, the post-crash recession of 2008 was less severe than it might have been.

Under the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, the UK and Denmark were the only EU member states relieved of the requirement to join the euro once certain economic conditions were in place, for example on government borrowing and inflation (the “convergence criteria”).