23/08/2005 (Agence Europe) - The EU has not taken advantage of the implementation of the euro in order to speed up economic reform, in view of the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke, who feels that "on that front so far, [the EMU] has been a failure". Chancellor of the Exchequer (British Conservative) from 1993 to 1997, Mr Clarke calls upon the European Central Bank (ECB) to "rethink the role it plays in the economic life of the nations it serves". The ECB should be "more open" and stop "imitating the Bundesbank, which it was an institution suited for the 1960s", said Mr Clarke in Tuesday's edition of the newspaper Central Banking. "At the moment, the ECB only explains its monetary policy decisions in terms of inflation, but inflation is not the major cause for concern for people nowadays ", he added, stating his view that the Bank of England and the American Federal Reserve are the most appropriate models, as they regularly communicate and debate the economic situation as a whole. Mr Clarke, who is a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative party, cannot see the United Kingdom joining the euro zone in the next 10 years and believes that "there is no way the constitutional treaty can be saved ".