The Euro in Cyberspace

Without the Internet, it'd be almost impossible to follow the manifold implications of the euro.

Euro-related economic data, opinion, academic studies, news stories, stock and bond prices -- they're all available on the Web.

The easiest English-language places to follow day-to-day

European Union

developments are the Web sites for the British newspapers, whose coverage is informed and often feisty.

The Daily Telegraph

and

The Times

take a more euroskeptical stance and are therefore good sources for identifying fault lines that may be opening up among EU members.

The

opinion section of the

Telegraph

is the crucible for many of the U.K.'s most trenchant anti-Brussels thinkers. Influential euroskeptic columnists include the

Telegraph's

Boris Johnson

and

The Times'

Anatole Kaletsky

.

Not all British newspapers take such an antagonistic approach to Europe. The

Financial Times

does a nice job of pursuing a broadly pro-EU viewpoint while at the same time criticizing developments it feels could hurt the region's business environment. Its most outspoken -- and eloquent -- commentators on European affairs are

Martin Wolf

and

Philip Stephens

. The

FT's

Germany correspondent,

Wolfgang Munchau

, is a must-read for goings-on in the new

European Central Bank

.

The Guardian

and

The Independent

are other quality pro-Europe U.K. newspapers.

Several British magazines' sites are also worth stopping by regularly.

The Economist

(a paid subscription is necessary to access the whole magazine online) always contains a wealth of material on Europe. And thought-provoking pieces on the region can often be found in less well-known U.K. publications like

Prospect

and the

London Review of Books

.

EMU-Specific Sites

Several useful Web sites have been set up to focus solely on

Economic and Monetary Union

. By far the best is

EmuNet. This site carries an extensive glossary, a list of recent news stories updated daily, a wide selection of statistics and a well-attended forum page, where key EMU issues are debated.

Polis is also worth visiting regularly. Its European political

calendar of upcoming European political events is indispensable.

The Telegraph's

Euronet has a lot of good resources. And the

BBC

also has some neat EU-specific

pages. The U.K.'s euroskeptic

Bruges Group

has its own

Web site on which anti-EU resources are listed.

Market Data

Euro-related market data and economic analysis are also there in cyberspace.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's

Global Economic Forum, updated every weekday, nearly always contains insightful comments from the firm's European economists. Investment bank

Dresdner Kleinwort Benson

makes a broad array of up-to-date euro statistics available on its

site. And

Lehman Brothers'

Global Strategy notes often touch on Europe, as does

Chase's

daily

briefing on currency and bond markets.

When it comes to European stock and bond information, the

FT

site has the best

selection.

Yahoo! also has a range of comprehensive sites covering many individual European countries and markets.

Interactive investor not only gives stock prices for London, Paris and Frankfurt equities, it also allows users to build historical share-price graphs in its quotes pages.

Official Sites

Important official Web sites include those belonging to the

European Central Bank and the

European Union, which has some attractive and easily downloadable

images of the euro coins and notes. European central banks and finance ministries also have their own sites.

Finally, think tanks and international organizations: The

OECD, the

Royal Institute of International Affairs,

Bank for International Settlements,

Demos, the

Adam Smith Institute and the

International Monetary Fund all have Web sites that contain useful EU-related material.

This story was originally published on Dec. 11.