Reply #122: The UK is in the EU but is not in the Eurozone [View All]

[fedsron2us]

It did not join because the then UK Chancellor Gordon Brown decided the country did not meet the convergence criteria. This was probably the biggest decision in his entire term of office

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro

BTW the UK is not unique in being within the EU but not adopting the Euro. Amongst the others retaining their own currencies are Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic. There are also EU members such as Denmark that peg their currencies to the Euro for trade purposes but are not members of the Euro currency zone.