Det siger jeg med beklagelse, for jeg er ivrig tilhænger af en monetær union og ville gerne have fulgt tidsplanen, men den tyske og den franske regerings holdning er, at hvis der indføres en euro pr. 1. januar 1999, bliver det en svag euro, som meget hurtigt vil komme under angreb fra valutamarkederne.
I say that with regret because I am a keen enthusiast of monetary union and would have liked to see it go ahead on time but the positions of the German and French governments will be such that if a Euro is created on 1 January 1999 it will be a soft Euro and very quickly come under attack from the currency markets.