Loosening of pact an invitation to Britain

FOR the past couple of years there has been a sometimes worrying and sometimes entertaining sideshow over the single currency's fiscal policy bedfellow, the stability and growth pact.

Last week saw what was to many a very welcome change in emphasis on the exercising of the pact by EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Pedro Solbes.

Partly aimed at wooing Britain into the single currency, partly recognising there is room for a little bit of pragmatism without it being deemed a fudge, Mr Solbes accepted that differing fiscal positions from country to country within the Eurozone can result in different interpretations of the stability and growth pact.