THE debate over European Monetary Union must not prevent EU states from completing the single market, the former British foreign secretary, Mr Douglas Hurd MP, has warned.
Mr Hard, who is a director of National Westminster Bank, was in Dublin yesterday to address a business dinner organised by Ulster Bank, its subsidiary.
"I do not accept the argument that a single currency is needed if the single market is to work," he told the meeting.
Although countries inside the single market, but outside the single currency block, might be able to use devaluation as a competitive weapon, such a strategy was not sustainable because of the consequential inflation, he said.
There is still much work to be done to complete the single market. This includes the removal of barriers to trade and deregulation in areas such as telecommunications.
He said there was a real danger of the EU concentrating efforts on the single currency before the single market had been completed.
"One European habit which is particularly alienating is the tradition of answering criticism of present policies by focusing attention on great plans for the future.
"We are in danger of starting an enterprise and then switching attention to a new enterprise before we have completed what we have already set in hand," he said.
At an earlier briefing, Mr Hard said he did not believe that Britain would be in the first wave of countries to participate in monetary union, due to happen in 1999.
Monetary union was not necessary for the completion of the single market, either logically or legally, he said.
Referring to the British government's current decision to obstruct EU business until the world wide ban on British beef exports is lifted, he said: "I think it is highly desirable that the present impasse be broken."
He said that the British prime minister was using a tactic with which the Commission was familiar in order to highlight an urgent problem.
"There is a way forward out of this difficulty and I hope it is found."
He said the solution might be for Britain to adopt the Union proposals for the lifting of the ban on beef by products along with an agreement of a framework for the lifting of the global ban.
