Five economic tests

This article is part of a series about Gordon Brown
Electoral history MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath Shadow Chancellor Blair–Brown deal Chancellor of the Exchequer Chancellorship 1997 budget Five economic tests Financial Services Authority 10p tax rate Sale of UK gold reserves, 1999–2002 Policies Brownism New Labour Third Way Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Premiership 2007 leadership election Ministry Treaty of Lisbon 2008 financial crisis Bank rescue packages 2008 2009 Climate Change Act 2008 2009 European elections 2010 general election Post–Prime Minister 2014 Scottish independence referendum Bibliography Courage: Eight Portraits Britain's Everyday Heroes The Change We Choose Beyond the Crash My Life, Our Times
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The five economic tests were the criteria defined by the UK treasury under Gordon Brown that were to be used to assess the UK's readiness to join the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU), and so adopt the euro as its official currency. In principle, these tests were distinct from any political decision to join.

The five tests were as follows:^[1]

1. Are business cycles and economic structures compatible so that we and others could live comfortably with euro interest rates on a permanent basis?
2. If problems emerge is there sufficient flexibility to deal with them?
3. Would joining EMU create better conditions for firms making long-term decisions to invest in Britain?
4. What impact would entry into EMU have on the competitive position of the UK's financial services industry, particularly the City's wholesale markets?
5. In summary, will joining EMU promote higher growth, stability and a lasting increase in jobs?

In addition to these self-imposed criteria the UK would also have had to have met the European Union's economic convergence criteria ("Maastricht criteria") before being allowed to adopt the euro. One criterion is two years' membership of ERM II, of which the UK was never a member. Under the Maastricht Treaty, the UK was not obliged to adopt the euro.

When the Brown government was voted out of office in the 2010 United Kingdom general election, the tests ceased to be government policy.