At long last the British government has agreed a date on which their decision on joining the euro will be made. Ahead of the cabinet meeting on June 9th, ministers will be given details of the Treasury estimate of the economic pros and cons, on which it has been working for several years.
Yesterday's announcement made it clear the decision will involve all of them and will not be confined to a secretive tussle between the prime minister, Mr Tony Blair, and the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown. That is a welcome, if belated, recognition that this is above all a political decision, one of the most important to be made for a generation.
In recent days the pace of political argument on the euro has been stepped up within the British government, the Labour Party and the country at large. Ministers who favour it have been frustrated by the lack of cabinet discussion - a criticism given added voice by Ms Clare Short's resignation statement in which she said Mr Blair is running an increasingly presidential system, with too little inter-ministerial deliberation. Opinion within the wider Labour Party favours entry in principle, but is divided on the tactics and the timing of a popular referendum.
The government has to take on board stiffening opposition within the country at large, as a result of the Iraq war. The latest opinion poll shows strong majorities against joining on economic and political grounds. An extraordinary number of voters believe British national identity would be damaged by joining the euro, fanned by an increasingly europhobic tabloid press.
Mr Blair's principal political project has been to bring Britain into the European mainstream, which he frankly admits is impossible if it does not join the euro. While the economic case can be argued both ways, especially if the five ambiguous tests laid down in 1997 are followed, essentially this is a political decision. There are major risks and uncertainties involved, which it will take determined political leadership to resolve. Mr Blair's failure to offer a convincing vision of his European policy has strengthened the more sceptical case put by Mr Brown, a tension which is widely believed to extend to political rivalry between them.
Ireland has a major economic and political interest in seeing this uncertainty resolved, preferably by a British decision to join the euro soon.
But the realistic expectation must be that the cabinet is unlikely to hold a referendum before the next general election in 2005 or 2006.