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by purple_elephant 1054 days ago
There are many uninformed comments in this thread saying that the UK would have to join the Eurozone if it returned to the EU.

No. You only have to adopt the euro if you meet the convergence criteria. One of the criteria is joining ERM II. There's no mechanism that can force a country to join ERM II. This is why Sweden, although theoretically obliged to join the eurozone, still has its own currency.

2 comments

I think the problem with this is that it's a technicality; the optics of selling it like that wouldn't wash - I suspect the UK would need specific reassurance for the "Euro" topic.
No, why do pro-EU people lie about this so frequently?

The rules say that to join you must adopt the euro. The EU has chosen not to enforce this rule on legacy members for now, but certainly would enforce it on Britain and anyway good luck selling "we want to join but we plan to illegally ignore the rules" to either the EU or the British electorate.

Reality is the EU wasn't every opportunity in the UK and it's blue going to rejoin unless there's essentially some undemocratic coup. The moment is explained what thinking would entail the proposal is dead.

The rules aren't "unenforced". Sweden, and the other non-eurozone countries without an opt-out, are complying with the rules. There's no rule requiring the EU members to meet the convergence criteria.

Instead of accussing me of lying, you could've just looked up the relevant treaties.

Here's an abridged summary: https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/euro/enlargement-euro-a...

And this is about ERM II, it explicitly says that it's voluntary: https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/euro/enlargement-euro-a...

The full treaty on European Union is here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CEL...