Poll reveals EU euro doubts

EU citizens still have doubts about the euro, according to a new opinion poll.

The survey, carried out by the Financial Times and Harris reveals that eight years on from monetary union, an overwhelming majority of citizens in the eurozone’s biggest countries believe that the euro has had a negative impact on their national economies.

The scepticism comes in spite of a widespread belief that Europe’s single currency is having a positive impact across the EU - as opposed to within the individual countries.

Almost 70 per cent of those polled in France, Italy and Spain and more than half of Germans believe the single currency has had a detrimental impact. 

In France, only five per cent agreed that the euro has had a positive effect on the French national economy.

But looking at the bigger picture – at the EU economy as a whole – eurozone citizens are more upbeat, with German, Italian and Spanish citizens all agreeing on the wider benefits of the euro.

However looking at the French figures on this issue shows the reverse, with more believing that euro introduction has had a negative affect on the EU’s economy.

The results come as the ECB faces increasingly hostile criticism, particularly from France over interest rate rises, which ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet has defended as necessary to keep down inflation.

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