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		Letter to the Editor Glossop Chronicle - Tuesday, 17 June 2003 Dear Sir, Tom Levitt MP (article, June 12th) must be living on another planet. He says "the euro has been a success...and enabled cohesion across twelve countries". There are 4½ million unemployed Germans who might disagree. The euro may be only a contributory factor in the German recession, but it is the main problem preventing a recovery. There are two things the Germans need to do to recover. First, they need lower interest rates, but they can't have them, because they have to accept the rate set by the European Central Bank. Second, they need an expansionary fiscal policy. But they can't have that either, because of the so-called "Stability and Growth Pact" (which has delivered neither stability nor growth!). Far from "enabling cohesion", the euro is driving divergence. It is causing recession and unemployment in the euro heartland, but (as the Commission itself admits) it is causing unsustainable demand pressures (that's inflation to you and me) in the outer countries like Portugal and Ireland. It gives most euro-zone countries the wrong interest rate most of the time - and that's bad for jobs, growth and prosperity. Mr. Levitt says that if 24 EU countries have the euro, and we don't, it will be "highly dangerous to our economy". On the contrary, Mr. Levitt, we will be the only country in the EU with the right interest rate. We can already see that Britain, with the Pound, is out-performing the euro-zone. Only a fool would want to converge with the euro-zone's failing economies. Yours sincerely, Roger Helmer MEP