EU admits people were conned over single currency

Van Rompuy admits citizens were misled about the euro

The Telegraph reports that EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has admitted that the "man in the street" was misled about the true economic and political implications of adopting the euro. "Nobody ever told the proverbial man in the street that sharing a single currency was not just about making peoples' lives easier when doing business or travelling abroad, but also about being directly affected by economic developments in the neighbouring countries," he said on Tuesday evening. "Being in the 'Euro zone' means, monetarily speaking, being part of one 'Euroland'."

He added that "We are clearly confronted with a tension within the system, the ill-famous dilemma of being a monetary union and not a full-fledged economic and political union. This tension has been there since the single currency was created. However, the general public was not really made aware of it."

The article cites Open Europe's new briefing, "They said it: How the EU elite got it wrong on the euro", and quotes Open Europe's Vincenzo Scarpetta saying, "The euro zone crisis is not simply about economic failure but also a breakdown in trust between the political class and European citizens. The EU elite simply got it wrong on the euro."

Meanwhile, in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung, Commissioner for Budgets Janusz Lewandowski said, ahead of his talks with Chancellor Merkel and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, "I want to see to what extent [German] public opinion has changed his mind about European aims [...] Germans have clearly become more eurosceptic: they believe they must pay for other EU citizens' mistakes and good life".

Telegraph Expansión Les Echos Open Europe briefing Open Europe press release