BRUSSELS: Sweden, one of the three EU members which have so far opted to stay out of the euro, on Friday named a date for a referendum on the single currency.

Along with Britain and Denmark, traditionally eurosceptic Sweden has prospered outside the euro zone but most of the country’s political elite has long wanted to see Stockholm ditch the krona for the euro.

On Friday, Sweden’s party leaders decided the country would hold a referendum on September 14 2003 despite the fact that the polls are finely balanced.

The decision still needs to be formally endorsed by the country’s parliament but with only two small parties opposing it, that is seen as a formality.

Goran Persson, the newly re-elected Social Democrat prime minister, said a Yes vote would see the euro enter circulation on January 1 2006.

“We will be living in a part of Europe where we could very soon have the strongest growing economic region,” he told reporters.

Denmark has already held one referendum on the single currency which resulted in a No, but is expected to hold another in the coming years if Sweden votes Yes. With up to 10 mostly east European countries set to join the EU in 2004, Britain could soon be outnumbered 24 to 1 by countries which have embraced the single currency.

In Sweden, Mr Persson has long said he favours his country joining the euro. Three centre-right opposition parties agree but one other centre-right party and the Left and Green parties oppose the move.

With a population of nine million, Sweden joined the EU in 1995 and until last year two out of three Swedes were firmly opposed to joining the euro.

However, a dramatic swing in public opinion, fuelled by the falling value of the krona, a dramatic fall in the stock market and an increasing feeling of insecurity saw support for the euro surge to 50 per cent.

The fact that Sweden held the EU’s high-profile rotating presidency for six months last year also helped persuade Swedes that their country could wield real influence within the EU and could achieve even more if it joined the euro.

Enthusiasm for the single currency has, however, faded in recent months. Sweden’s economy has picked up again while the eurozone’s seems to have stalled.

A poll by Demoskop released earlier this week showed the Yes and No camps in a dead heat, both attracting 43 per cent support.

Support for the Yes camp was down two points on a similar poll in October while support for the No camp was up four points.

The two sides are now expected to launch full-scale campaigns early next year.

Party leaders will hold a meeting in December to decide the precise wording of the referendum question and how much government money should be apportioned to the two camps.

The Yes camp suffered a public setback earlier this year when the European commission announced that the krona was too volatile to be absorbed into the euro. That, however, is apparently no longer an issue. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.