Join euro or be sidelined, Portuguese PM warns

The Portuguese Prime Minister yesterday urged Britain to join the single currency or risk being sidelined in the EU. "You cannot be in the centre, if in the most important enterprise – the euro – you are not there," Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said.

"If the United Kingdom does not share with other partners the duties of membership in the euro, it cannot have the right afterwards to lead in important matters like defence where Britain traditionally has had a very important role, or in institutional debates," he added

Tony Blair has said Britain favours joining the euro in principle and has pledged to assess the economic merits of membership by next June. Five self-imposed economic tests will decide if the conditions are right to join then the issues will be put to voters in a referendum.

Portugalwas the first eurozone country to face the threat of sanctions for breaking the single currency rules by not keeping its budget deficit under 3 per cent.

In Portugal yesterday, a national strike in protest at proposed changes to labour law forced schools to close, reduced hospital care to emergency treatment only, left rubbish uncollected on the streets and clogged roads with traffic as most public transport stopped.