BRITAIN AND EUROPE | IN FOCUS
Reform of the EU is now on the agenda in the UK and in many other member states. Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to hold a referendum on UK membership of the EU in 2017 if he wins the general election in May 2015. He also pledged to negotiate the terms of Britain’s membership in order to repatriate powers from Brussels to London. The vast majority of British businesses
have been in favour of Britain remaining in the EU but are keen to secure reforms to the way that it operates. In a poll in September 2013, eight out of 10 CBI members – including 77 per cent of SMEs – said they would vote for the UK to remain a member of the EU in a referendum if held now. In a landmark 180-page report entitled Our Global Future, published in November 2013, the CBI set out why the benefits of EU membership to British business significantly outweighed the costs. The report stated that the UK’s EU membership is worth approximately 4-5 per cent of UK GDP annually, or between £62 billion and £78 billion – equivalent to £3,000 for every household. It also made clear that any alternative to British membership of a reformed Europe would not offer greater advantages or influence for the UK. As CBI Director-General John Cridland said at the launch of the report: “The starting point for that vision is a global perspective: we need to look outwards to the world as it changes. Our membership of a reformed EU is the best
Left: The European Parliament in Strasbourg
platform to do that. We must not forget the value to the British economy of having access to a market of over 500 million people.” But just as the CBI has been a strong and
consistent advocate of British membership of the EU, it has also maintained a strong need for reform so that its institutions operate in the interests of the UK and the wider European community. A decade ago former director general Howard Davies warned that a “struggle for the soul” of the European Union was under way. Writing in the 1994 annual report, he said: “We are on the side of those who seek an open, deregulated, competitive continent with powers at the centre exercised only where they are needed to ensure the effective operation of the market.” This debate has not prevented the CBI supporting the government in resisting the imposition of poorly framed regulations. For example it has opposed the Financial Transaction Tax that seeks to impose a levy on share and bond trading and which the CBI has warned will damage growth, jobs and investment across Europe. But this is very different from arguing for a special relationship for the UK alone, which could lead to the exit door by default. The CBI has long maintained that only proactive, positive and permanent UK engagement will secure the outcomes that can support Britain’s global future. The next two years may well see whether the UK will remain part of a union that has served Britain well and increased its prosperity as a nation.
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