The media have recently reported several scare stories about price rises in countries using the euro following the changeover to the new currency.

In fact, two new surveys show prices for consumer goods on the Continent remain significantly cheaper than in Britain and that consumers continue to be ripped off compared to shoppers in the euro countries.

A report by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DKW) shows, on average, we pay 12 per cent more.

Though some unscrupulous retailers have used the changeover to the euro to round prices up, DKW confirms that the longer-term impact of the common currency will be to push prices down in the countries that use it.

It is not just cigarettes, alcohol and other booze-cruise fodder on which Britons pay over the odds.

We also pay up to 30 per cent more for sports equipment, perfume and electrical goods, according to the consumer magazine Which?

While the evidence is clear that British shoppers are already paying the price for isolation from the euro, anti-Europeans have resorted to scare-mongering with claims that the introduction of euro cash has forced prices up.

In fact, Eurostat found the introduction of the new notes and coins had caused a one-off blip in inflation of no more than 0.2 per cent.

-Chris Huhne MEP, European Parliament, Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1