IX. Translate into English

1.Англия намерена оказать давление на своих партнеров по Евро­пейскому союзу в целях выработки совместной политики в вопросах пользования землей в пограничных районах.

2.После строительства нового моста, связывающего Данию и Швецию, розничные торговцы из-за имеющихся в Дании ограниче­ний на торговлю в сельской местности предпочитают открывать мага­зины на шведской стороне.

3. Положения, регулирующие землепользование, будут включены в повестку дня по инициативе Ве­ликобритании на предстоящей встрече министров по региональной по­литике стран-членов Европейского союза.

4. Предусматривается разра­ботка общих подходов к вопросам, касающимся жилья, транспорта, благоустройства городских и сельских районов, водоснабжения и средств связи.

5.Некоторые члены Европейского союза высказывают опасение относительно расширения влияния Европейского союза в пределах национальных территорий.

6. Разрабатываемый документ будет иметь рекомендательных характер, но его принятие может привес­ти к разработке соглашений, имеющих обязательную силу.

7. Предла­гаемые меры позволят избежать разделения между богатыми и бедны­ми, ведущего к возникновению социальной напряженности, и содейст­вовать диверсификации экономики.

8. Документ предусматривает дальнейшее расширение мировых центров, таких как Лондон и Париж, увели­чение влияния городов, представляющих собой "ворота" Англии и кон­тинентальной Европы, например, Лиссабона.

X. Study the article in several groups. Choose one of the situations and brainstorm the points

1. Denmark restricts out-of-town shopping, so retailers have set up shop on the Swedish side.

2. States face similar pressures from the explosive growth of single-person households and urban sprawl.

3. Some members have been wary of extending the EU's reach into national governments' territory.

4. The UK planning minister has held meetings with doubters such as Spain and Portugal.

5. The document charts the growth of "gateway" cities to the EU, such as Lisbon, and "world cities" such as London and Paris.

XI. Meet as one group. One of you should lead the meeting. Decide how the problems of Gateway cities can be minimized Text 2 Sustainable Convergence or Resistance?

The government says that Britain cannot consider joining the European single currency until it has passed five economic tests. But have the tests already been met?

It is an economic argument set to a transparently political timetable. The government has long insisted that it regards the question of whether Britain should join the single European currency as above all an economic issue. Gordon Brown has set five economic tests to gauge whether Britain is ready to take the plunge. But he also insists that he will not decide whether Britain has met these tests until after the next election.

The reasoning is plain. Polls show that a large majority of British people do not want to join the euro. The Labour Party is desperate for the single currency not to become an issue in the next election. So Mr. Brown is trying to kick the issue into touch, until the election is safely won. In his Mansion House speech, which the chancellor was making as The Economist went to press, he was expected to stick firmly to this line.

Increasingly, however, the government's strategy is under strain. It is hard to imagine that the Labour Party will get through an election campaign, without revealing whether it intends to call a referendum on the abolition of the national currency shortly afterwards. Some of Mr. Brown's cabinet colleagues in particular Robin Cook, Stephen Byers and Peter Mandelson - clearly want the government to take a more robustly pro-euro line now.

The past fortnight has seen a steady stream of interventions, from the pro- and anti-euro camps, as they try to force the chancellor off the fence. This week, the Britain in Europe campaign marshalled a posse of international economists to present the case for joining the single currency. The anti-euro Business for Sterling pressure group rustled up former Treasury "wise men" (economic advisers) to warn that entry could imperil hard-won economic stability.

So how far is Britain to meeting the five tests Mr. Brown first set out in October 1997? The first and most important is whether the economy can demonstrate sustainable convergence with the euro zone. Next, the Treasury wants to be sure that the economy is flexible enough to cope with economic shocks once interest rates are set in Frankfurt. It will also assess the impact of joining the euro on investment, the City and employment. Recent debate has focused on three of the tests: convergence, investment and the City.

When he first posed his tests, he concluded that the economic cycles of Britain and the euro zone were too divergent to allow entry into monetary union in this parliament. However, this week's figures for consumer price inflation were ammunition for those arguing that the economy is converging on the euro area. On the index of prices used within the European Union to measure inflation, Britain's annual rate nudged down in May to a new low of 0.5%. Last October, British inflation fell below the euro zone's and since the start of the year, it has been the lowest of any EU country.

These latest inflation figures appeared to validate the view of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, that Britain is moving closer to the economic centre of gravity of the euro area than some of its current members. Britain's short-term interest rates, too, are now much nearer to those in the euro area than was the case when Mr. Brown ruled out early entry. Then there was a differential of almost 4 percentage points between official rates in Britain and Germany. Now that has narrowed to less than 2 percentage points.

That differential could close further if the Bank of England continues to hold interest rates at 6% while the European Central Bank further tightens monetary policy. The pressure for higher rates in Britain eased this week thanks to signs of pay moderation in the labour market. Average earnings growth in the latest three months fell from an annual rate of 5.7% to 5.1%, the biggest slowdown since 1993 - and approaching the 4.5% rate the Bank believes is compatible with meeting its inflation target.