EMU (Economic and Monetary Union (not, note, European MU)) is primarily a political issue: any supposed economic benefits are secondary. Its main objective, freely admitted by its key architects, is a political one - the further integration of the EU into a federal state.

*** Example 1 ***
Wim Duisenberg, President of the European Central Bank: "The introduction of the euro is neither an isolated nor a purely economic event. It is another, yet very important, step in the process of European integration. ... The creation of the euro is not the end of that process either,... economists all too often assess the costs and benefits of European integration in purely economic terms". (Dr. Willem F. Duisenberg 'The Past and Future of European Integration: A Central Banker's Perspective' The 1999 Per Jacobsson Lecture, Washington, 26 September 1999).

*** Example 2 ***
German Chancellor Schröder: the Euro is "an important step on the road to European integration". (Inaugural address to the Bundestag, 10 November 1998)

*** Example 3 ***
Bank of England Governor, Eddie George (OK - he's not a "key architech"): "...monetary union is fundamentally a political project rather than an economic issue." (Speaking at the British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Basel, Switzerland, 12 September 2000).

*** Example 4 ***
Arguing that the creation of the euro entails a "federal logic", Michael Barnier, European Commissioner responsible for reform: "...the only question [is] whether the EU should be a federal state modelled on Germany, or whether it should pursue the goal of political union 'through other means'." He conceded that Britain would have "serious difficulties" with his proposals on the abolition of a national veto in all areas of policy. (speaking to a meeting of the Commission on 14 June 2000)

This political dogma of further European integration is the explanation for the willingness of European leaders to press ahead with the Euro, regardless of the economic consequences. But they know well enough that, if ordinary people were to realise the extent of their political hubris, there'd be hell to pay, so they try to sell the project on its economic benefits.

So, first point: joining the Euro is to hand over our economic control to faceless, remote, unelected, undemocratic, corrupt, self-seeking, empire-building bureaucrats. And then there are the economic arguments which I'll address in a later posting 'cos I don't have time now.