Yes to the euro

East of England’s Liberal Democrats overwhelmingly backed euro membership in the survey included with the last edition of eastern Agenda. Tim Huggan reports back.

In the days following the New Year, the Cambridge office was inundated with replies from our members’ survey on the euro and EU matters. The survey was collated and analysed by the end of February. We promised that we would report back in this issue.

Over a thousand responses were received, plus a handful of objections to the methodology.

The question on future UK membership of the euro elicited many detailed responses and requests for more information which have been answered by Andrew on an individual basis. The survey showed a large majority in favour of euro entry, with a clear majority favouring immediate entry. 58% said we should join now, with a further 18% saying they supported joining in principle. The rest were divided between 13%, who said they did not know enough about the issues to make an informed decision.

Just 11% of Liberal Democrat membership in the East of England said that the UK should never join the euro. We had been told that Lib Dems are more euro-sceptic than the party leadership. This survey suggests that this is not the case.

Questioned about the reasons for joining, 75% of our membership thought that Britain’s trade would grow, while 69% welcomed increased British influence within the EU.

Of those opposed to the euro, 88% feared loss of control of the economy.

The membership was fairly divided between those that thought that the European Union had too much power (36%) and those that thought that it had too little (45%). A clear majority, however, thought that they would like to see the European Parliament with more power (70%). The Court of Justice was also a popular choice for more having more authority (62%). Not surprisingly, there was little enthusiasm for giving greater powers to the Council of Ministers (14%).

We asked you on what issues you would most like to be kept informed about. The environment with 61% came out top, followed by the euro on 53%. Given the crisis over Iraq, many asked for more debate about common foreign, security and defence policy.

The survey was a useful exercise in gauging what our members think about Europe and the euro. Liberal Democrats in the region generally have a positive view of the EU and of its component institutions.

Andrew certainly takes account of the views of the party membership when addressing the political and constitutional issues raised in the Convention. We plan to repeat and refine this survey in due course.