European monetary affairs commissioner Yves-Thibault de Silguy said yesterday the outcome of the weekend meeting of European Union finance ministers in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, meant the single currency would definitely see the light in 1999.
The results of this meeting confirm the political will...to respect the calendar and conditions of the move (to economic and monetary union), De Silguy said at the launch of a book on EMU - EMU Explained written by Reuter journalists.
Doubts over a timely start to economic and monetary union have festered in recent weeks, fuelled partly by Germanys sluggish economy and apparent fractures among some EU policy-makers over the wisdom of proceeding on schedule.
The list of EMU participant countries will be fixed at the end of April or beginning of May 1998. The Euro will exist in 633 days, de Silguy said.
The question is no longer to know whether or not the timetable will be respected, it will be; whether or not the criteria foreseen will or wont be followed, they will be.
He said the only challenge still left was how to communicate its importance to economic actors and the general public.
There is a huge gap between the sterile debate, fostered by certain politicians and academics, about whether the start will be postponed and the preoccupations of investors and the main economic operators on the ground, he said.
De Silguy said companies and other businesses were worried about details, such as double-pricing and dual circulation of currencies during the transition to a single currency and whether they would have to pay taxes in euros from 1999.
The Commission aims to address these issues at a conference in Brussels on May 15, to which had been invited 200 representatives of banks, governments, traders, small businesses, consumer organisations and unions.
During 1997 the Commission would also step up its information campaign on the euro launched last year, he said.
