9. Summarize the text, using the words and phrases given below:

to join the single European currency; to take the plunge; to set five economic tests; to pass the economic tests; to meet the economic tests; to reveal smth; to call a referendum on the abolition of the national currency; to present the case for smth; to imperil hard-won economic stability; to cope with economic shocks; to focus on smth; to validate smth; to rule out early entry; to tighten monetary policy; to secure London’s long-term future; to negotiate over an acceptable exchange-rate.

10. Study the text in several groups and try to find arguments to support the following point of view:

1. The latest inflation figures appeared to validate the view of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

2. Britain is moving much closer to the economic centre of gravity of the euro area than some of its current members.

3. The "killer fact" in the convergence story remains the current strength and past volatility of the pound.

4. The pound is a source of instability rather than a buffer against it: "sterling is a rabbit squeezed between two elephants", the dollar and the euro.

11. Meet as one group. One of you should lead the meeting. Develop the following idea:

– If Britain is to enter monetary union, it will have to do more than to pass Gordon Brown's five tests.

Text 3 Advantages of Spanish Membership in the eu

Pre-reading tasks

1. What do you know about the present position of Spain in the European Union?

2. What are the peculiarities of Spanish economy?

Improved roads and the high-speed railways provide the most obvious sign of the benefits Spain has derived from the inflow of funds in the years of the EU membership.

Spain currently leads the EU's list of net recipients, and by all accounts has made good use of the money. For Spanish in­dustry and agriculture the impact of membership has been so deep and diverse as to make it hard to draw up a balance of gains and losses. Spain's exports to the EU partners, which in the early years of membership ran at around 75 per cent of what it imported from them, have progressively been gaining ground, to over 90 per cent last year.

However, the gap in income levels between Spain and the rest of the EU has narrowed only slowly — from about 70 per cent of the average when it joined in 1986 to just under 78 per cent. The country still needs heavy spending on infrastruc­ture to enable it to compete in the single currency zone, and the southern regions of Andalucia and Extremadura make up the EU's biggest unemployment blackspot, with an official rate close to 30 per cent. Now, as the EU has incorporated much poorer countries in central Europe, the concept of soli­darity which has underpinned Spain's early period of member­ship is set for radical change.

Spain’s worries focus on the treatment of Mediterranean agricultural products, tighter condi­tions for aid, and the overall budget ceiling of 1.27 per cent of gross domestic product.

The first crunch in the planned farm reforms is an interim plan for the olive sector. Olive oil is a Mediterranean product par excellence; Spain is the world's biggest producer of it; and it is the single sector that has gained most from membership so far.

From the European Commission viewpoint, a complex set of aids including payment according to output, is too complex, invites fraud and encourages growers to keep producing more and more.

About 140,000 people are reckoned to work at least part of the year in the business in Andalucia alone, and for many areas olives are the only viable crop.

A two-year delay has been granted before the adoption of a definitive system, with a temporary arrangement introducing na­tional quotas for the first time among the five EU producers — Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and France — instead of an over­all maximum.

After vigorously rejecting German arguments that countries in the euro zone should no longer be entitled to special aid, Spain is fighting proposals to peg the funds to strict fulfillment of economic "stability plan" objectives.

Making clear its firm political commitment to the EU's east­wards enlargement, the Spanish government has taken the position that it is ready to "pay its share". Officials say they accept that Spain's net receipts will fall, but argue that this should come from higher Spanish contributions rather than reduced entitlements.