UK denies plans to join the eurozone

The British government yesterday denied that it plans to join the single European currency after European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said in a radio interview that Britain was considering joining the eurozone.

While speaking on a French radio show, Jose Manuel Barroso had said on Sunday that leading British politicians were considering favouring a switchover to the euro as a consequence of the global financial turmoil.

However, Downing Street maintains that the idea was rejected and insisted that the country's position on the euro hasn't changed."

The euro debate has resurfaced after the global financial turmoil but had fallen off the agenda after a highly-charged issue in Britain in the earlier stages.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is seen to be against joining the eurozone and the public opposition has not tapered either on the issue. However, former premier Tony Blair had wanted to hold a referendum on the issue.

Barroso while speaking on the panel of a joint RTL-LCI radio and television broadcast, a weekly French news programme, had said that Britain's entry to the euro was: "closer than ever before" amid the global slowdown, which has seen sterling slump to its lowest level against the euro since the European single currency was created in 1999.

He added that some British politicians had told him that Britain would have been better of with the euro.

The UK government had set up five economic tests such as convergence between Britain and the eurozone, impact on jobs, foreign investment and the financial services industry and its flexible to economic change in order to settle on whether to recommend joining the currency before the euro was launched.