There are continuing signs of tensions on the road to monetary union. Just recently France upped the ante by proposing that its central bank governor, JeanClaude Trichet, should be the first governor of the European Central Bank.

Up till then, Dutchman Wim Duisenberg, who is in charge of the central bank's forerunner, the European Monetary Institute, had seemed a dead cert for the job.

And now this week a row has broken out over the composition of a group which would informally discuss policy co-ordination before regular EU ministerial meetings. Germany and France argued at an EU finance ministers meeting that this group - to be known as the Euro-X council - should be restricted to those countries which joined monetary union.

Not surprisingly, that idea has met stiff resistance from Britain, Sweden and Denmark, which have opted to stay out of the euro when it is launched in January 1999, and Greece, which is not expected to meet the criteria for the single currency at the outset. The Danish and Swedish economy ministers warned their EU colleagues on Monday that the move could divide the Union, although Britain took a less confrontational view.

At stake is more than the membership of another committee. The danger for those not joining monetary union is that they will not have a seat on the European Central Bank board. They would thus have no say on interest rates for the euro zone - and now may also be excluded from the Euro-X council, which could be an important forum in setting the agenda for EU finance ministers meetings. The issue is an important marker for the EU. It highlights the key political issue of managing the relationship between those who are inside the first wave of monetary union and those who are not - the ins and the outs.

Much attention has been paid to the decision on who will be a member of the first wave. But it is also vital for the future of the EU that all members can live with whatever mechanisms are put in place to run the new currency. It is also important that those outside the first wave do not feel consigned to second class membership.