London / Felixtowe, 06/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - Are the European Union and the euro to play a major role in Thursday's general elections? Whereas victory seems assured for the Labour Party, and that the unknown factors are rather the scale of this victory and the number of abstentions, the Conservatives have clearly failed in their bid to place Europe at the centre of debates. Labour has, for its part, always wanted to disassociate these sensitive issues from the electoral debate by promising to hold a referendum on the euro at a later date.
The question of the euro has completely disappeared from the media coverage and no longer even comes at the top of William Hague's and his followers' speeches, more concerned with warning of the dangers of a Labour landslide, even though they continue in their "save the pound campaign". According to a poll published in the Guardian last week, Europe and the euro are well at the bottom of the list of the central concerns for the electors. Heading the list are health, combating crime and education. According to the same poll, 68% of Britons are in favour or very much in favour of belonging to the EU, and 57% believe "that we should wait to see how things develop" before deciding on joining the euro. 12% now say they are in favour of the single currency, and 29% resolutely against.
Nigel Garnder, former European Commission spokesperson and Labour candidate in the constituency of Suffolk Coastal, also considers that "if the European Union and the euro interest many people, they are not the stakes of these elections, which foremost concern public services". As proof of the interest in Europe, Nigel Gardner stresses that, in a programme organised by the local radio on the elections, in the presence of different candidates for Suffolk Coastal, "80% of listeners' questions concerned Europe". According to polls, Nigel Gardner has a fair chance of winning, even though the Tory candidate, former minister John Gummer, remains the favourite in this constituency always held by the Conservatives. In his campaign, Nigel Gardner has not really highlighted his experience of Brussels. He did, however, collect over a third of his campaign funds in Brussels, and received the visit of several MEPs. John Gummer and the Liberal-Democrat candidate are also pro-European, which cannot really be said for Michael Burn, of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), for whom the United Kingdom should immediately leave the European Union, of which it has been "proved that it is a plot led, among others, by former Nazi officials and collaborators to destroy the United Kingdom".
Examination of the influence of the debates on the euro and the European Union in the choice of electors, as well as the media coverage of these elections and the comparison with elections in other member countries are the main goals of the programme organized by the British Council, in which EUROPE is taking part, which has enabled 25 journalists, especially European, to follow the elections in different constituencies. The British Council (which is the British international organisation for education and cultural relations) is organizing a conference in Brussels on 4 July.