Clegg vows to work with European partners on global issues

NICK CLEGG wants Britain to put aside its traditional euroscepticism and work with its continental partners to confront the challenges of a globalised world.

In an interview with AFP ahead of Thursday’s vote, the Liberal Democrat leader insisted “pragmatism” would triumph over eurosceptic instinct and refused to rule out Britain joining Europe’s single currency.

But Clegg, speaking French in an interview on board his yellow campaign battle bus, insists conditions are not yet right for Britain to join the eurozone, saying that in any case, the decision would be put to a referendum.

“I think there is quite a large degree of scepticism, but British people are very pragmatic,” he said, campaigning in northern England in the last few days of a month-long campaign.

“There are big problems in this globalised world which we can’t overcome alone: climate change, international crime, regulating multinationals, the need to negotiate on equal terms with major world powers, the US and China.

“We simply can’t do it on our own,” he added. “The main idea is that together we are stronger than if we are on our own.”

Clegg could emerge as kingmaker in a coalition government following this week’s elections, after his party leapfrogged the ruling Labour Party to move from a distant third to second behind the Conservatives in opinion polls.

The 43-year-old, whose performance in the first of three live TV debates is credited with causing the surge in Liberal Democrat support, has faced criticism for his pro-European views.

His background does not help calm eurosceptics: he was a European Union official and EU lawmaker, speaks five languages – English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Russian – and has a Dutch mother, a half-Russia father and a Spanish wife.

Much attention has focused on the Lib Dems’ refusal to rule out abandoning Britain’s sterling in favour of the euro, currently shared by 16 European Union countries, despite the recent crisis in Greece.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was widely seen as having put the brakes on Britain’s prospects of joining the euro when he was chancellor of the exchequer under his predecessor as premier, Tony Blair, seen as keener at the time.

Opposition Conservative chief David Cameron – whose party leads in opinion polls for the knife-edge elections – has given an explicit guarantee never to abandon the pound.

While backing the euro in Britain is far from a vote-winner in Britain, Clegg insists it is a “long-term possibility,” while underlining that it must be justified economically.

“It’s not possible to fix a timeframe in terms of years. It is impossible to predict when it will be economically justified,” he said.

“I will never suggest that this country enters the eurozone unless I am totally convinced that it’s good for jobs, for economic growth, if it is in our interest. That is not the case at the moment.”

And he stressed: “In any case, it is not a decision which politicians will take. It is the people who will take it, via a referendum.”