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To: goldsnow who wrote (9998)	4/16/1998 5:13:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116762

Euro 'may sink like the Titanic' By Andrew Gimson in Berlin telegraph.co.uk THE launch of the euro was compared yesterday to the Titanic's fateful maiden voyage by Jean-Pierre ChevŠnement, the French Interior Minister. He told the German newspaper Die Woche: "One can only pray and sing". Mr ChevŠnement attacked the "technocrats" who were trying to convey the impression that the new currency was moving securely forward. He said: "I believe it is like the Titanic. The sea is calm, the dining saloon is superb, everything is very comfortable and full of luxury. The orchestra plays, it's a dream. But the Titanic is charging at full steam towards the pack ice. By the time we see the iceberg, perhaps it will be too late." He said the euro would be too rigid from the moment that there could be no further exchange-rate adjustments. The rates between the countries taking part in the euro are due to be set early next month. Mr ChevŠnement said "asymmetric shocks" could lead - in the absence of exchange-rate flexibility - to tension between the European nations, with each country blaming its difficulties on its neighbour. He lamented that the "dogmatic concept" of the "absolute independence of the European Central Bank" would mean no priority was given to cutting unemployment. Mr ChevŠnement said that to deal with unemployment, a European growth pact was needed and "a strong European economic government, forming a counter-balance to the central bank". Described by his admirers as "very easily the most intelligent French Eurosceptic", Mr ChevŠnement left the Socialist Party in protest against President Fran‡ois Mitterrand's pro-European policy and set up the Movement of Citizens. But he now finds himself part of a government which is introducing the euro - raising the question of whether he intends to resign. He has said in the past that "a government minister either shuts his trap or resigns". If after opening his mouth so wide in this interview, he declines to resign, it will probably be because he has resigned twice before in his career - most recently over the Gulf war - and would be laughed out of court if he did the same again. In his interview, he ignored the question when it was raised. Mr ChevŠnement's political fiefdom is Belfort, near the German border. He is an expert on Germany and has written a book urging the need for frankness between the two countries. In the interview he expresses the hope that if Gerhard Schroder wins the German general election in September, he will prove a less faithful observer of the Maastricht Treaty than Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and will be prepared to renegotiate the Stability Pact under which the members of the euro commit themselves to cautious budgetary targets. Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, won approval yesterday for a three-year plan to cut spending on public services as part of a final push to show that Rome is ready for the European single currency.