Sweden may hold referendum on euro next year

Sweden's Prime Minister, Göran Persson, indicated in a newspaper interview on 9 January 2002 that he was ready to hold a referendum in 2003 on euro membership. His remarks are likely to influence the euro debate in the United Kingdom and Denmark. The Danish Foreign Minister suggested that a euro referendum could be held in Denmark in 2003. An opinion poll in early January 2002 for Channel 4, a UK television company, suggested that public scepticism about the euro in Britain is diminishing.