<s docid="FT921-3015" num="18"> That seems to be exactly what the 16 German federal states are doing, in insisting that they will only give their blessing to Maastricht if their own involvement in all future Euro-negotiations is greatly increased.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3015" num="19"> And it is the sore temptation faced by the opposition Social Democrats (SPD).</s>

<s docid="FT921-3015" num="20"> The support both of the states, and the SPD, is essential to get ratification.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3015" num="40"> In the first place, there are the outright Euro-sceptics, dubious about the demise of the D-mark, and convinced that Germany must now concentrate more on integrating east and central Europe, and less on the old EC.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3015" num="41"> The second group comprises the Euro-enthusiasts, convinced that Maastricht has failed to strengthen European political union enough, alongside Emu, and seeking to block the latter until the former has been achieved.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3015" num="42"> Third come the German federalists, the powerful German federal states, which see their territory increasingly whittled away by Bonn, through Brussels.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3015" num="46"> According to the respected Allensbach institute, the polling body, the proportion of Germans wanting to slow down the European integration process has risen from 21 per cent in 1989 to 38 per cent last year.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3015" num="47"> Those suggesting it should not be slowed down dropped from 58 per cent in 1989 to only 34 per cent last year.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3015" num="55"> He suddenly came out with a ringing denunciation of the whole process of European union, describing it as a 'totalitarian dream of universal redemption', and denouncing the Ecu as 'Esperanto-geld'.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3015" num="57"> Then came Mr Oskar Lafontaine, deputy leader and enfant terrible of the SPD, who surprised and alarmed his own colleagues by calling for outright rejection of the EC treaty - because Emu will be built on foundations of sand.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3015" num="71"> The greatest threat to Mr Kohl's position, however, comes from those German federalists who wish not to transfer all decision-making to Brussels, as the British might suspect, but to keep it all back in the Lander (states) in Germany.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4286" num="7"> The narrow anti-Maastricht vote in the Danish referendum has splintered the convoy of EC members on their journey towards ratification of the European union treaty.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4286" num="8"> It has focused attention on an apparent lack of democratic backing for the goal of greater European integration proclaimed at the EC summit in the Netherlands six months ago.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4286" num="9"> And it has added to domestic difficulties of several governments - notably in Germany and France - at the centre of the Maastricht process.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4286" num="10"> The Danish mood finds an echo in other states where government policies on Europe are falling foul of disenchanted electorates.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4286" num="26"> Showing how Denmark's 'No' is reverberating well beyond its borders, Mr Dinkelspiel points out how Swedish opinion polls at the end of this week showed a sharp anti-EC swing.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4286" num="32"> An overall 69 per cent of EC populations believe that Community is a 'good thing', according to the latest poll at the end of last year against 60 per cent in 1985 and only 56 per cent in 1973, when Britain joined.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4286" num="38"> Last year, 27 per cent of those surveyed said they were either 'rather fearful or very fearful' about the 'single market', which comes into effect on January 1 1993, against only 22 per cent in 1988.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4286" num="39"> Additionally, as the chart shows, support for 'unification of western Europe' has dropped in recent years in the richer countries which believe they will have to pay for it.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4286" num="61"> An initial indication that this may be happening was a hastily conducted opinion survey carried out this week in which an astonishing 81 per cent of respondents said they opposed the treaty.</s>

<s docid="FT942-2610" num="16"> That Euro-optimism has now withered in the harsher economic climate and resurgence of inward-looking policies across the EU.</s>

<s docid="FT942-2610" num="19"> In a book published this week, Mr Jacques Delors, European Commission president, is quoted in an interview as calling the treaty over-ambitious and poorly drafted.</s>

<s docid="FT942-2610" num="20"> 'We shouldn't have made a treaty on political union, it was too soon.'*** In similar vein, Prof Andre Szasz, an executive director of the Dutch central bank, who strongly backs the Maastricht aim of economic and monetary union (Emu), says: 'Rarely was a treaty concluded with such far-reaching implications and such lack of clarity as to what was intended and why'.</s>

<s docid="FT942-2610" num="35"> Prof Loukas Tsoukalis of Athens university says cynicism about European union and establishment politicians is part of a general malaise.</s>

<s docid="FT942-2610" num="40"> His organisation has just carried out a poll across Europe indicating only 30 per cent of the EU electorate supports a 'United States of Europe', against 50 per cent who are opposed.</s>

<s docid="FT942-2610" num="70"> Mr Hans-Joachim Veen, head of research at the Christian Democrats' Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Bonn, says two-thirds of Germans oppose monetary union.</s>

<s docid="FT942-2610" num="73"> On the future, he says, about 25 per cent of Germans want Europe to deepen integration, 30 per cent want to widen it to the east, and 45 per cent favour the status quo.</s>

<s docid="FT923-973" num="8"> A stream of Euro-sceptic critics on the government benches, such as Sir Teddy Taylor and Mr William Cash, queued up to speak in the debate, but abstained in the division rather than voting against the government.</s>

<s docid="FT923-2077" num="13"> The No voters clawed their way up from 30 per cent in the June opinion surveys to a narrow majority in late August, only to fall back slightly by the time public polling ended a week ago.</s>

<s docid="FT923-2077" num="23"> But the open debate of the referendum campaign brought out four big guns against the treaty - the 'three musketeers', Mr Charles Pasqua, Mr Philippe Seguin, Mr Philippe De Villiers from the main opposition parties; and Mr Jean-Pierre Chevenement from the ruling Socialists - and four big issues.</s>

<s docid="FT923-2077" num="24"> The broadest has been the debate over French sovereignty: whether Maastricht would compromise or protect it and how the EC should be made more democratic.</s>

<s docid="FT923-2077" num="27"> The prospect of technocrats in an independent central bank, alien to French tradition, running a Euro-currency has been extensively and ably exploited by the No campaigners.</s>

<s docid="FT923-2077" num="29"> Swirling around these issues has been the future of France's key relationship with Germany, the one country which it constantly measures itself against and which it feels outstripped by.</s>

<s docid="FT922-2274" num="9"> At the same time, the minority Greens called for a national referendum before ratification, a demand which is supported by some key members of the SPD, and a by clear majority in recent opinion polls.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-42685" num="16"> Mr. John Major made clear that he was instinctively opposed to a single currency for Europe, although the Government's official policy is that a decision should be made by a future parliament.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4637" num="14"> UK objections to Maastricht's original social policy ambitions led to its 11 partners making separate provisions for more advanced laws through a protocol to the treaty.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4637" num="22"> In France there is concern both about sovereignty and the treaty's granting of the vote to foreigners in municipal and European elections.</s>

<s docid="FT922-4637" num="24"> The Dutch, Belgians and Italians all demanded more powers for the European Parliament.</s>

<s docid="FT942-6780" num="8"> That in turn prompted Mr David Heathcoat-Amory, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Europe, to break with the government's formal neutrality on the issue.</s>

<s docid="FT942-6780" num="9"> He warned that a single currency would undermine British sovereignty.</s>

<s docid="FT942-6780" num="10"> Echoing controversial remarks made this month by Mr Michael Portillo, the Euro-sceptic chief secretary to the Treasury, Mr Heathcoat-Amory said the replacement of sterling would 'dilute' Britain's national identity.</s>

<s docid="FT942-6780" num="11"> Making little effort to disguise his own distaste for the idea, he added: 'The Foreign Office view is that the timescale laid down in the Maastricht treaty - the two trigger dates of 1997 and 1999 - is unrealistic'.</s>

<s docid="FT942-6780" num="18"> Mr William Cash, a prominent Euro-sceptic on the Tory backbenches, accused the German leader of meddling in Britain's domestic affairs.</s>

<s docid="FT922-8522" num="23"> Queen's speech Britain's particular Angst centres on whether the Queen, in a speech in Strasbourg, was allowed excessive latitude to make light of differences in national parliamentary traditions.</s>

<s docid="FT921-7322" num="13"> The group warned such a currency could lead to the payment of 'massive subsidies' to most other member states.</s>

<s docid="FT922-6614" num="6"> TWENTY-TWO Conservative rebels voted against the government last night as the European Communities (Amendment) Bill, which ratifies the Maastricht treaty, received a second Commons reading with a comfortable majority of 244 (336-92).</s>

<s docid="FT922-6614" num="7"> A total of 61 Labour MPs, including tellers, defied the leadership's advice not to vote and opposed the motion.</s>

<s docid="FT922-6614" num="8"> These included Mr George Howarth, the MP for Knowsley North, who resigned his position as a frontbench housing spokesman in order to do so.</s>

<s docid="FT922-6614" num="9"> Among the Tory rebels were former ministers such as Mr John Biffen and Mr Michael Spicer, and other prominent Euro-sceptics including Sir Teddy Taylor and Mr Tony Marlow, the MPs for Southend East and Northampton North respectively.</s>

<s docid="FT922-6614" num="28"> For Labour, Mr John Smith, the shadow chancellor and a contender for the party leadership, argued that the convergence criteria were 'too narrowly formulated' and should be expanded to take account employment and economic growth.</s>

<s docid="FT942-829" num="17"> But that solemn pledge of solidarity degenerated over the next two and a half years into a family feud that culminated in the debacle in Corfu at the weekend when the UK vetoed the choice of Jean-Luc Dehaene, the Belgian premier.</s>

<s docid="FT942-829" num="20"> It is a tale of rivalry between small and larger states, fear about the preponderance of German power, and the predicament of the UK inside the European Union - a fact underlined by British prime minister John Major's calculation in the early hours of last Saturday morning that isolation among his European partners was preferable to losing the support of Conservative Euro-sceptics at Westminster.</s>

<s docid="FT923-4071" num="9"> The Royal Bank hopes uncertainty about the plan for economic and monetary union (Emu) will be swept away by a 'yes' vote in this month's French referendum on the Maastricht treaty.</s>

<s docid="FT923-4071" num="25"> This means there is no corresponding means for redistributing revenues from richer to poorer countries, a mechanism which, Prof MacKay says, would be necessary to compensate lower-productivity countries for the loss of economic flexibility caused by irrevocably fixing exchange rates.</s>

<s docid="FT923-4071" num="26"> Since the EC is unlikely to be able to agree a method for channelling funds from German taxpayers to the rest of Europe, Prof MacKay believes plans for Emu face 'a big political problem'.</s>

<s docid="FT933-13974" num="9"> Asked whether the EC should deepen its co-operation towards greater pooling of political and economic power, or widen it to include new members, Mr Jaans replies crisply: 'Deepening is over.</s>

<s docid="FT933-13974" num="24"> If Luxembourg had held a referendum on Maastricht, he probably would not have voted for it.</s>

<s docid="FT933-13974" num="25"> His chief complaint is that politicians will have too much leeway in deciding how the treaty will be interpreted and implemented.</s>

<s docid="FT933-13974" num="40"> Mr Jaans says the aim of setting up Emu on a D-Mark-orientated hard currency basis 'may suit countries such as Germany, the Benelux countries, Denmark and perhaps France, with high prosperity and reasonably well-spread financial wealth'.</s>

<s docid="FT933-13974" num="41"> Less well-off countries would rather give priority to growth, he says, and will not want to join in.</s>

<s docid="FT923-2373" num="7"> RIVAL campaigners in the French referendum on the Maastricht treaty were yesterday quick to exploit the European monetary turmoil to bolster their respective cases, with the Yes camp calling for the stability of a single Euro-currency and the No group casting new doubt on the feasibility of such a unit.</s>

<s docid="FT923-2373" num="14"> But Mr Philippe Seguin, a leading No campaigner within the RPR, said the currency turmoil had shown 'before our eyes' that Maastricht was 'an historic misconception'.</s>

<s docid="FT933-14360" num="6"> THE GOVERNMENT last night delivered a crushing blow to a last-ditch attempt to force a referendum on Maastricht, as the House of Lords rejected a passionate plea from Lady Thatcher to allow the British people to decide whether to surrender more of their powers to the European Community.</s>

<s docid="FT923-1693" num="7"> The razor-thin French endorsement of the Maastricht treaty has given a temporary reprieve to the European Community's plans for political and monetary union; but the political credibility and economic feasibility of the enterprise remain in doubt.</s>

<s docid="FT923-1693" num="27"> Already, there are calls for a referendum on Maastricht in Germany, and both the Bundestag and Bundesrat may reserve a 'right of approval' before allowing Germany to move to fixed exchange rates, as laid down in stage three of Emu.</s>

<s docid="FT923-1693" num="59"> The result was that 58 per cent of those who voted No to Maastricht cited fears about the loss of national sovereignty; 57 per cent voiced opposition to technocrats in Brussels; and 41 per cent voiced concern about the threat of German hegemony in Europe, which both supporters and opponents of the treaty invoked in order to galvanise support for their cause.</s>

<s docid="FT923-1693" num="64"> Some member states may use it to roll back intrusive but beneficial policies such as the aggressive enforcement of competition law; others may seek to re-open the debate on state aid, arguing that more attention to national sovereignty means more support for national businesses.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-20024" num="41"> Because I believe the provisions of Maastricht make it more difficult for unemployed Europeans to find a job, and those who do have a job will lose it all the sooner.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-20024" num="88"> [DER SPIEGEL] Perhaps the dispute about the blocking minority also has something to do with British fears of being involved in a German-dominated Europe or in a Franco-German European core.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-20024" num="93"> [DER SPIEGEL] London and Bonn also seem to share the biggest doubts about the European Monetary Union [EMU]. [Major] My skepticism is based on the expected economic outcome of the EMU.</s>

<s docid="FT931-17112" num="55"> Lionel Barber writes: The Danes remain capable of pulling off surprises, but the odds are that the Maastricht treaty will be ratified after a divisive referendum in late April or May.</s>

<s docid="FT931-17112" num="56"> Britain will follow, thanks to Mr Major's deft handling of the EC summit in Edinburgh and the probability that Tory Euro-sceptic opposition peaked in early October, shortly after the petit Oui in the French referendum.</s>

<s docid="FT931-17112" num="57"> The treaty itself is flawed.</s>

<s docid="FT931-17112" num="58"> Monetary union for the 12 by the end of the decade looks fanciful.</s>

<s docid="FT944-5295" num="6"> Support for political and monetary union in Europe is even lower among Germans than Britons, according to an opinion poll carried out for the Financial Times.</s>

<s docid="FT944-5295" num="7"> Nearly two-thirds of adults in each of the two countries want a referendum on a single European currency.</s>

<s docid="FT944-5295" num="8"> Only 33 per cent of Britons and 24 per cent of Germans support a single currency, while 27 per cent of British voters and just 23 per cent of Germans say they favour closer political links among EU members.</s>

<s docid="FT944-5295" num="16"> The survey shows that only 24 per cent of ordinary Germans support widening the EU towards central and eastern Europe - a subject that will be high on the agenda at this week's EU summit in Essen.</s>

<s docid="FT944-5295" num="17"> By contrast, 42 per cent of British respondents back the EU's prospective eastern enlargement.</s>

<s docid="FT944-5295" num="19"> A total of 28 per cent of British respondents say their region has suffered as a result of EU membership, against 14 per cent who say it has benefited.</s>

<s docid="FT944-5295" num="20"> The equivalents in Germany are 15 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.</s>

<s docid="FT944-5295" num="21"> A total of 26 per cent of UK respondents, but only 9 per cent of Germans, consider EU membership 'a bad thing'.</s>

