Employers to pressure ministers over euro policy
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Your support makes all the difference.Two of the UK's largest business organisations will poll their members this summer over their views on Britain's membership of the euro.
Two of the UK's largest business organisations will poll their members this summer over their views on Britain's membership of the euro.
In a move that is certain to intensify the pressure on the Government to come out with a firm policy, the British Chambers of Commerce and the Engineering Employers' Federation will both ask their members whether they want the UK to abolish the pound.
The results will be the first official surveys of business opinion since last year's general election and since the launch of euro notes and coins on New Year's Day. The outcome of the polls will be used to formulate the organisations' official policies on the euro.
The most recent surveys from the BCC and EEF as well as from the CBI have shown that business is split down the middle.
Malik Thahid, a spokesman for the BCC, which plans to carry out its poll in May or June, said: "This will be an interesting exercise because it will give us our position. If it is 70 per cent for the euro then that will be our position."
The EEF said it would survey its membership in September. Stephen Radley, its chief economist, said that the timing allowed companies to register the impact of the launch of the euro as a real currency.
A shift in policy by the two organisations would come as a huge boost to the pro-euro campaign, which has been dented by reports of splits in the Cabinet on govern- ment policy.
However the CBI said it still has no plans to ballot its members on the issue. Although the CBI initially took a strongly pro-euro line, it has taken a more neutral line recently, reflecting a divide in opinion amongst its members.
Yesterday a spokesman said: "We are working to the Government's timetable so we are standing ready to poll members when we get a clear indication that a referendum may be in the offing."
Meanwhile, a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers has warned that the economies of the UK and euroland would start to diverge in 2002.
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