Berlusconi Minister Wants Italian Vote on Return to Lira

John Hooper, London Guardian

The cause of European unification yesterday suffered another
swingeing blow when one of the parties in Silvio Berlusconi's
governing coalition threw its weight behind a campaign to pull
Italy out of the euro.

Roberto Maroni, Mr Berlusconi's social security minister and a
joint acting leader of the Northern League, said his party would
start collecting signatures for a referendum on the issue later
this month. He also appealed for the process of ratifying the EU
constitution to be halted.Days after it was reported that senior German ministers had
discussed the disintegration of the single currency, Mr Maroni
pledged to start collecting signatures for a referendum later
this month. He branded the euro a "disaster" which was product of
a "European model whose failure we are witnessing with concern".

Joaquin Almunia, the European monetary affairs commissioner,
dismissed Mr Maroni's criticism of the euro, which fell to an
eight-month low against the dollar at one point in the week. "I
think nobody is going to succeed in eliminating [the euro]," he
told Spanish radio.

But the move by Mr Maroni showed how the certainties of Europe
are starting to unravel in the wake of the emphatic no votes in
two founding members of the project.

Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder will today attempt to keep
the integrationist dream alive when they hold crisis talks in
Berlin. But their meeting suffered a setback even before the
French president's plane took off from Paris. Mr Schröder had
originally intended to invite the leaders of the EU's original
six founding members to today's talks. The move, which fuelled
speculation that France and Germany are trying to create an
"inner group", fell apart when Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch
prime minister, said he could not make the meeting.

Mr Balkenende was last night emerging as a key figure in the
crisis which will come to a head when European leaders gather for
a summit in Brussels on June 16-17. Britain hopes to kill off its
own referendum by asking Mr Balkenende and Mr Chirac whether they
will hold second referendums in their countries — the only way of
reviving the EU constitution.

The French president will resist giving a clear commitment
because he wants the ratification process to continue. But Mr
Balkenende gave Britain strong ammunition by telling the Dutch
parliament on Thursday that he would not attempt to ratify the
treaty again.

Dutch government sources said that Mr Balkenende still believes
the ratification process should continue. But in remarks which
will be welcomed in London, one source said: "The European
process should go on. But we have had a no, therefore we cannot
say yes to this constitution."

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, will choose his lan­guage
carefully when he gives Britain's formal response to the no votes
to MPs on Monday, because ministers do not want to give Mr Chirac
an excuse to blame Britain for killing off the constitution.

But yesterday's attempt in Italy to kill off the euro was the
most surprising intervention. Roberto Maroni is one of two
Northern League politicians who have stood in for its leader,
Umberto Bossi, since he was temporarily incapacitated by heart
failure last year. It is unlikely that he would have made his
remarks without first clearing them with Mr Bossi.

Mr Maroni held up Britain as a model to be copied. "It is growing
[and] developing while keeping its own currency," he said.

The euro has become deeply unpopular in Italy where it is
associated in the public mind with big price increases and the
recent slowdown in economic growth.

In the run-up to a general election that must be held by next
May, Mr Berlusconi will be sorely tempted to throw his weight
behind the League's "back to the lira" campaign. He is lagging in
the polls and a drive against the single currency would offer him
a way of deflecting the blame for Italy's lamentable economic
performance since he took office. Last month, it emerged that
Italy had slipped into recession for the second time in two
years.

The European Central Bank's chief economist, Otmar Issing, said
that if Italy were to leave the euro zone, it would be committing
"economic suicide".