THE EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Mr Yves Thibault de Silguy, has vigorously reiterated his and the Commission's confidence in the timetable for the single currency.
His comments will reinforce important weekend attempts to assuage fears raised last week by Germany's failure to meet the Maastricht deficit target of 3 per cent last year.
Mr de Silguy said the slowdown in the EU economy, particularly in Germany, reflected a temporary setback. He strongly endorsed the analysis of the president of the European Monetary Institute, Mr Alexandre Lamfalussy who on Sunday had rejected suggestions that Europe was heading for recession.
Mr Lamfalussy had also echoed the confidence expressed over the weekend by the German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, that Germany would be able to meet the convergence criteria deficit target by the time the decision on first participants in the single currency was taken at the beginning of 1998. Dr Kohl had told his Christian Democrat party on Sunday that there was no question of delaying EMU.
Mr de Silguy, who was hosting a Brussels press conference to publicise the Commission's round table on the single currency next week, said the fundamentals of the EU economy were sound, particularly profitability.
The downturn in investment of the latter part of last year and the slowdown in growth were the products of a temporary conjunction of events, instigated largely by the currency instability in the spring of 1995, he said. What was needed now was to reassure investors and consumers of the basic soundness of the economy.
Mr Lamfalussy said "What makes me rather less pessimistic than the current mood is the fact that I don't see any of the traditional early warning signs or indicators of a business cycle downturn."
The German jitters come at a bad time for Mr de Silguy and the Commission as it launches its campaign to win the hearts and minds of the European public for the Euro with its 400 strong round table "brainstorming session" in Brussels next week.
The Commission has invited business leaders, bankers, communicators, trade unionists, young people and consumer groups to contribute their perspectives on how Europeans can be persuaded to take the single currency to their hearts.
The Euro could not be imposed from above, Mr de Silguy said. The public had to be given the opportunity to learn to love the Euro.
He pointed to the experience in the past of successful currency transitions, citing decimalisation in Britain, and those less successful like the French move from the old franc to the new to warn that diligent preparation of the public was the key to acceptability.
While the member states would be responsible for campaigning to raise awareness among their own citizens, the Commission, he said, would contribute with ideas.
Asked if he thought it likely the British Prime Minister, Mr Major, would be willing to run a positive information campaign for the Euro, Mr dc Silguy said they had not been notified by any of the member states of an unwillingness to do so, nor had Britain indicated that it would definitely not be participating in the single currency.
Those for whom participation was a possibility had an interest in the technical preparations, he said, so that when the time came they genuinely had the choice.
Mr de Silguy's press conference was started with a short animated film of the hourglass logo that will be used in the campaign coins from 15 individual currencies tumble through the narrow gap to become one Euro.
