DJ reports the U.K. is considering joining the euro zone as a direct consequence of global financial turmoil, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said "We are now closer than ever before. I'm not going to break the confidentiality of certain conversations, but some British politicians have already told me: 'If we had the euro, we would have been better off,"' Barroso told a weekly French news program, referring to the fall in the pound's value since markets and liquidity meltdown earlier this year. "The British have an enormous quality, one of many, that is they are pragmatic," he said on the panel of a joint RTL-LCI radio and television broadcast. "This crisis has emphasized the importance of the euro, and also of Britain," he added. "I don't mean this will happen tomorrow, I know that the majority (of British people) are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration underway and the people which matter in Britain are currently thinking about it," the former Portuguese prime minister said.