John Baron MP: The Twelve Days of the European Union – 12

12 – 12 Eurozone Members in 2002

As we approach the final furlong to the EU referendum, and with the necessary apologies to the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’, John Baron MP is sharing his ‘Twelve Days of the European Union’, setting out why we should vote to leave on 23rd June. Further daily instalments to follow.
There were 12 members of the Eurozone when notes and coins were introduced in 2002 – Belgium, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland. Despite sceptics warning of the dangers in the way the Euro was set up and run, the EU hailed the single currency as the crowning symbol of integration. However, the Euro and Eurozone crisis has led to huge economic and political pain in some countries, and has generated huge tensions between Eurozone member states.

John said,

“Monetary union has proven to be a disaster having forced greater austerity onto members, with youth unemployment rates exceeding 50% in some countries. Yet it is largely the same people and organisations who forecast disaster if we did not join the Euro who are now opposing Brexit. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.”

Quote of the Day:

‘The Euro is a conquest of sovereignty’
(Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Managing Director of the IMF, 2007-2011)