As far as the Luxembourgers are concerned our participation in the single currency means that one of the smallest countries in Europe and the world is becoming one of the eleven co-owners of one of the major currencies existing worldwide. We do not think that the euro will harm the development of the banking sector in Luxembourg. We are used to a competitive environment, and so we feel ourselves at ease in this new world. The euro will develop into a factor of worldwide economic growth. I believe that its introduction is a major contribution toward a better stabilized monetary order worldwide.
Monetary developments have to a great extent become more predictable.
It means the end of European disorder in the monetary field. My impression is that the UK does not want to be isolated from this. The Blair government is very eager to play a major role, and they know perfectly well that there is no room for playing a major or a leading role in the European Union if you are not at the same time a member of the single currency. Moreover, considering strictly the British national interest, they have no other choice because the European Union will develop around the single currency, so I would say that the UK will join the single currency before January 1, 2002. The enlargement process launched under the Luxembourg presidency in December 1997 is a vital historic ambition, and even a necessity, because if we want to be in a situation where armed conflicts between European nations will no longer be an option in the twenty-first century, we have to make sure that Western stability and peace are brought to the eastern and central parts.