1.   Blair said Labour would take constitutional issues into account as well as economic criteria in deciding whether the U.K. should join.

2.   Britain, Denmark and Sweden opted not to participate in the single unified currency, and Greece failed to meet the required economic criteria.

3.   Countries adopting the euro will be selected in May based on ability to meet a series of economic criteria based on last year and forecast for this year.

4.   Countries will be selected in May for membership in the currency union based on their ability to meet a series of economic criteria by the end of this year.

5.   Countries will be selected for currency union, based on their ability to meet a series of economic criteria last year.

6.   Economic criteria alone decide the matchups, and the endless procession is more than any normal fan would want to keep up with.

7.   European Union members must slash deficits in order to meet the stiff economic criteria laid out in the Maastricht treaty on monetary union.

8.   Germany and France agreed that countries joining a future European monetary union must continue to meet economic criteria for membership after entry.

9.   If the government softens its budget measures to appease the unions, the chance that France will meet the economic criteria for European monetary union declines.

10.   Ifo also said France will be part of the union from the outset, even if it fails to meet all the economic criteria.