Germans endorse monetary union

The German parliament has backed the launch of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) following an eight-hour debate during which the chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, clashed with his Social Democratic challenger, Mr Gerhard Schroeder, over the risks involved in the new currency. Mr Schroeder made his most unequivocal expression of support for the euro to date but he accused Dr Kohl of paying too little attention to the lack of popular support for EMU in Germany.

"For the Germans the mark is more than a currency. For Germans in the west the mark is the symbol of reconstruction after World War Two and for the Germans in the east it symbolises participating in this prosperity. It would be fatal if in this building there were none or too little understanding for these concerns," he added.

An opinion poll published yesterday confirmed that most Germans still oppose the euro, with only 17 per cent supporting the move to the single currency. Dr Kohl conceded that the project was unpopular but insisted that the German people would come to accept the new currency in time.

"In politics we speak of once in a lifetime events. This is one such event. I am certain that in just a few years' time the euro will be accepted as readily as the deutschmark is now," he said.

The chancellor's speech was interrupted by a protest by the ex-communist Party of Democratic Socialism, the only party in the Bundestag to oppose the introduction of the euro. The party's parliamentary leader, Mr Gregor Gysi, said that Europe could not be united through money and that the only people to benefit from the euro would be arms manufacturers, exporters, banks and insurance companies. At the end of the debate, 575 deputies voted in favour of the motion to launch EMU with 11 members on January 1st, 1999, 35 voted against and five abstained.

Dr Kohl stressed that the euro represented more than just an economic development and would help to create a peaceful, stable Europe.

He also reminded Germans, who polls consistently show harbour deep reservations on the euro, that placing the future European Central Bank in Frankfurt meant the currency would be managed from German soil.