The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

What would it mean for Britain to leave the EU?

Talking about an EU referendum now is the wrong thing, at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons.

By Petros Fassoulas Published 02 July 2012 16:44

A press room is seen through an EU flag during a European Summit. Photograph: Getty Images

It is truly remarkable to hear the discussion around an EU referendum at this particular moment in time. As the global economy is dealing with problems of Herculean proportions, as the British economy is at the verge of a depression, a small number of nationalist, right-wing politicians and the tabloid press are obsessed with trying to remove the UK from the biggest single market in the world.

Never before has Britain’s membership of the EU been as important. As we fight for market share in an increasingly globalised and competitive world, being part of the biggest trading block offers us clear negotiation advantages. According to the FCO the UK is benefiting already from EU Free Trade Agreements. The recently signed South Korea Free Trade Agreement alone is expected to save European exporters £1.35 billion annually in tariff reductions. It is expected to benefit the UK economy by about £500 million per annum. The EU is also negotiating Free Trade Agreements with India, Canada and Singapore. Completing all the bilateral trade deals now on the table could add £75 billion to Europe’s GDP.

In a time when exports are imperative for the well-being of our economy, being part of the EU’s single market gives our exporters access to 500 million customers across Europe, creating jobs and growth at home. At the same time we are afforded a seat around the table where the common rules of that market are decided.

As a member of the EU the UK gains also in foreign policy terms, has more influence in international forums, like climate change talks or world trade rules, and is a more attractive partner for our American friends.

So it beggars belief that the prime minister and others toy with something as important as the country’s membership of the EU. It is clearly a game of political football, where all parties try to score goals against each other, using the EU question as a ball. But this is highly irresponsible and it does not serve the national interest. It only placates a minority of nationalist MPs and a handful of newspapers which, as the Leveson Inquiry has so clearly demonstrated, have their own agenda when it comes to the EU.

It also contributes to a sense of uncertainty; markets, global investors, our international partners (not least the US) are looking closely and perceive this tendency towards isolationism with concern. Leading figures in the City voiced fears last week that talk about leaving the EU can only damage one of the most important British industries.

The irony is that the prime minister does not want to leave the EU. Nor the majority of Tory MPs, who might dislike the EU but understand the economic benefits that come with it. Even Fresh Start, the eurosceptic group of MPs, accepts that all other available alternatives, including the Norwegian, Swiss and EFTA model, pale by comparison to full EU membership and do not suit Britain. But what they suggest instead, a nebulous and poorly defined re-negation of British membership, is impossible to materialise. In many ways what they are asking for means the unravelling of the single market.
What is to stop other member states from calling for exceptions from core elements of EU legislation? There are member states that wish to protect their national champions from EU competition rules, others that would like to raise barriers to imports. These are all things that will harm the single market (and British interests). So such re-negotiation is not possible and will push the UK towards the exit, something they have admitted they do not wish to happen.

So here we are, engaged in a pointless debate about something that can only harm the national interest. What politicians from across the political spectrum should be doing, what they should have been doing for a while in fact, is engage the electorate about what EU membership actually means.
Instead of allowing the debate to take place on the front pages of tabloid papers or be high-jacked by shadowy vested interests, they should be leading the discussion, not least during local, national and European elections. Openly, fairly and in a manner that aims to inform, instead of grand-standing and trying to score cheap political points, for internal political consumption, before or after EU summits.

The British people rightly want to be involved in what British membership implies. They are not eurosceptic, they do not want to leave the EU. Their appetite for a referendum is born out of a frustration that for far too long their elected representatives have not discussed with them the rights and responsibilities, the many benefits and inevitable costs that emanate from being a member of the EU. The sooner we make that conversation part of the normal political discourse the quicker the debate around EU membership will become a normal political debate and will start focusing on how to make the EU work even better and deliver even more for citizens in all member states. Until that happens we will remain stuck in this perpetual and populist discussion about whether to hold a referendum or not.

Petros Fassoulas is the Chairman of the European Movement UK

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View the discussion thread.

26 comments

Tue, 2012-11-13 20:39 — Baggers (not verified)

We are better out of the EU and if we were clever we would keep the free market status and concentrate more on forging are old trading ties with the Commonwealth which has massive potential with countries such as India, Australia, South Africa, Canada,Nigeria etc.We could also exploit the natural resources which have recently be found in the Falkland islands.Britain exports very little to the EU compared to what we import so I Can,t see the EU biting off the hand that feeds it especially Germany.
I know this probably doesn,t fit in with what most of you are saying but a countries people are defined by their history and although Europe has always influenced our path we have always gone with our gut feeling as a country to what we think is right and just .And fought for it.

Tue, 2012-11-13 20:36 — Baggers (not verified)

Thu, 2012-08-30 11:23 — Iany (not verified)

No amount of number crunching will convince the British right to abandon their Euro-scepticism which is deep in their psyche. It is the pathology of the frightened school bully. Happy in a world lording it over the less powerful, like imperial colonies and happy toadying up to the powerful, like America.
But when it comes to looking their peers in the eye and interacting with them, they feel out of their depth emotionally and intellectually. That's why Tories like Cameron prefer spending their weekends in the Shires chasing foxes with the editor of the Sun then networking with the leaders of Europe over informal debate and friendship.

Wed, 2012-08-15 12:08 — nick smart (not verified)

Those right wing politicians in UK sound exactly like Serbian right wingers !!
we in Serbia are listening to the same tunes about EU and how EU will destroy this and that and why we don't need it and should stay out of it etc .
So if you want to be next Serbia (isolated) and pro fascist then step out -it will be really strange to see country like UK joining ranks of Serbia and Belarus and "failed" countries like Macedonia,Kosovo and Bosnia .
You might think about forging "special kind of relations "with EU like Swiss and Norwegians have BUT TAKE THIS INTO CONSIDERATION :
1
YOU DON'T HAVE TRILLIONS of barrels of oil like Norway have
2
NOR YOUR CITIZENS HAVE 45 000 DOLLARS average annual income like Swiss have
Get serious guys !!measure twice before you cut it

Thu, 2012-07-19 13:41 — Goji (not verified)

Nice article..... interesting.
Goji Goji fructe goji

Sun, 2012-07-08 02:50 — Frans (not verified)

We continental Europeans would be delighted to see the British pish off. You are only in to sabotate the EU.

Britain is free to decide it wants to require visa for EU citizens from eastern Europe. But expect that when EU citizens need a visa for the UK, UK citizens will need a visa for the EU.

Britain is free to decide the rules it sets on products made in Britain. But do not expect you can export them to the EU if they do not meet EU rules.

Tue, 2012-07-10 18:26 — celtthedog (not verified)

You'd be glad to see us "pish" off? Fine, remember that we're taking our money with us. Good luck making up that shortfall from the second largest contributor.

Visa requirements for Europeans? No-one's suggested that, but we would like to see your passport. And yes, you can see ours, too.

Given that we import more from Europe than we export to it, I think you continentals might want to leave this one alone...

Fri, 2012-07-06 13:02 — miki123 (not verified)

Great Britain just can't leave EU sliding wardrobe doors

Wed, 2012-11-14 21:00 — Filthy Kuffar (not verified)

why not then ? Please educate us

Wed, 2012-11-14 20:59 — Filthy Kuffar (not verified)

why not then ? Please educate us

Wed, 2012-07-04 13:15 — Ted Schrey Montreal (not verified)

Anyone who ends his very first sentence with "...at this particular moment in time...", as the writer of this salespitch manages to do, should be suspected of depending on nonthought and nixspeak to make a nonpoint. But I will read the rest and get back to you later.

Tue, 2012-07-03 10:35 — Bill23 (not verified)

It's about time Cameron or anybody else who says we should support this dead weight should put forward figures to prove it. Even if the figures show we would only be slightly better off, that wouldn't take into account the boost in moral that an end to this alice-in-wonderland home for washed up politicians, parasitic bureaucrats, and rent-seekers in general would bring about.

Tue, 2012-07-03 10:33 — Bill23 (not verified)

Tue, 2012-07-03 10:32 — Bill23 (not verified)

Tue, 2012-07-03 09:52 — Will Slater (not verified)

UK Economy in ruins, mass Youth Unemployment, what do the Tories really care bout? The EU.

Out of touch bunch of toffs

Mon, 2012-07-02 18:28 — willoyen

unfortunately the knee-jerk reflex which has been worked up in the British by foreign owned patriotic tabloids is like a parody of Animal Farm: UK=good, EU =bad. It is so engrained after years of continuous dirty campaining as to have become part of the cultural identity of the British. They can only see the EU as non-democratic, (never mind what we get from FPtP), full of unelected officials, (never mind the Lords and others in the executive), dictating to us, ( they don't recognize that them is us), corrupt.(.!wow!), over-regulating, (they don't even see the benefits that EU regulation has brought ) and so on... the endless litany of contempt from the 'proud' british in their corrupt little island... it's depressing. Yesterday the Guardian had a poll: EU - I'm in/I'm out. Those for in: 46%. Those for out: 54%, (at the time when i voted) Had it been the Sun, the results would probably have been 4% for in, and 96% out, and the 4% would have been hounded as unpatriotic trolls. Out is almost a foregone conclusion. There is nothing that excites the British about the EU. They only see it as a threat, something to fear, and in their ignorance of how it works, they see leaving as a great release, as if Britian will be reborn in a resorgimento of brilliant economic success that the EU keeps us from. How sad the Brits really are.How long has it gone on?

Wed, 2012-07-04 10:27 — Arddeyeff (not verified)

Not so much a reply, more a cry of welcome, Willowyen. Can we never lift our snouts out of the trough or our minds out of jingoistic nationalism? Who created the ethics of the World in which we live? Not us alone, but we played our part in it.

It? - European influence in mankind's most recent evolution. From Hellenistic philosophy through the empires of Rome, Spain, Portugal, France, Holland and, of course, Britain. Add the role of Europe's offspring, the US of A as upholder of democracy and freedom at enormous cost in lives and $s to themselves, and you have the concepts of democracy, personal freedom and the UN that are now accepted as norms of behaviour, all spawned by Europe.

If we, or Europe, feel any responsibility to influence how the World thinks and acts it can only be as a united entitity. Once upon a time European nations virtually controlled the planet but those days died in 1941 when Japan challenged the West and lost, but they were not giants. Now the true giants of the East are awake and if we are not to become a third world nation in terms of influence it will have to be as part of another giant in a World of giants - the United States of Europe?

Europe is on that path and the question is do we go with them or do we accept an inferior rank? A minor nation one among many, cannot expect to fly non-existent aircraft off non-existent carriers to retain the vestiges of Empire - the Malvinas, Gibralter, and other islands scattered over the oceans. As such we cannot expect to keep a permanent seat, and its veto, in the Security Council. In my lifetime we have lost an empire upon which the sun never set, but do we really want to revert to being an unimportant offshore island? Would we not rather be part of one of half a dozen Superpowers?

Fri, 2012-11-09 22:37 — Lucidus (not verified)

Surrey Cobbler
Surbiton Shoe Repairs
Michael's Shoe Repairs
Star Shoe Repairs
Timpson Ltd
Bert's Shoe Repairs
Cobblers & Key Richmond
Prime Key Cutting & Shoe Repair
George Shoe Repairs
Toe Knees Shoe Repairs
Just Keys & Cobblers

Fri, 2012-11-09 22:13 — Val A1 (not verified)

What a load of cobblers!

Fri, 2012-11-09 22:13 — Val A1 (not verified)

What a load of cobblers!

Fri, 2012-11-09 22:07 — Val A1 (not verified)

What aload of cobblers!

Mon, 2012-07-02 18:21 — Barrie J (not verified)

The problem for the British voter is that one can no more believe the propaganda written by Petros Fassoulas than one can that spouted by Nigel Farage.
Yet, Mr Fassoulas falls into the trap of believing it's only a question of getting the message across.
Our politicians have had the best part of forty years to convince the populace of the benefits of membership of the EU and have failed to do so.
Nobody truly thinks that they are honestly represented by their elected representatives; so when they promise a referendum we know they have no intention of delivering it, because they know what the result will be.
Perhaps Mr Fassoulas would be kind enough to tell us who funds the European Movement UK and pays his salary?
Then he can move onto the problem of unelected Presidents and Commissioners, failure to address corruption, the CAP etc., etc.
You know? Get the message across to us?

Fri, 2012-07-06 11:46 — Catja Gaebel (not verified)

Dear Barrie J

please allow me to answer your question on Mr Fassoulas' salary and funding of the European Movement UK.

Mr Fassoulas' annual salay with regards to the European Movement is: £ 0,00
The funding of the European Movement UK comes from the hard work of a number of dedicated people. Unlike Denmark or Germany there is no state funding towards the European Movement.

I hope this answers your questions.

Fri, 2012-07-06 11:46 — Catja Gaebel (not verified)

Dear Barrie J

please allow me to answer your question on Mr Fassoulas' salary and funding of the European Movement UK.

I hope this answers your questions.

Mon, 2012-07-02 18:56 — willoyen

True, politicians don't convince us of anything, let alone enlighten us. They leave that to the tabloids whom they follow as vassals, not leaders. Blair enthused about Europe until war gave him the chance to become a 'world statesman'. The UK has suffered from this endless, frustrating uncertainty, neither really in, nor out.
Unelected presidents? van Rompuy is elected by the members of the council, all democratically elected heads of government. Barroso is elected by the heads of government and approved by the parliament.
And Barrie J. Are you for in, or for out? Undecided perhaps until our ‘elected’ representatives do their job and tell us what it’s all about, as they can be relied upon to do, always.