--Straw repeats UK govt will make euro assessment within 2 years
--Straw: UK govt making "continuous assessment" of euro tests
By Steve Ball London, June 14 (BridgeNews) - U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Thursday said that the decision on whether or not to join the euro was so important and difficult that it was preferable to have "periods of calm reflection". Straw's comments in a British Broadcasting Corp radio interview appear designed to head off the pressure building on the government to make an early assessment about joining the single currency.
Straw was giving one of his first substantive interviews since taking over from Robin Cook in the Cabinet reshuffle immediately after the June 7 general election. He refused to add much detail to the government's line on the single currency, saying only that he thought that the stated policy of making the assessment within two years was the "right one". However, intriguingly, Straw said that within government there was a "continuous process of assessment" of whether the U.K. was converging with the euro-zone.