Roger Helmer MEP Newsletter item

The EU: The tide is turning Last month I reported on EU Commission Vice-President Günther Verheugen's extraordinary admission that the regulatory costs of the EU are up to four times higher than any trade benefits from the Single Market. Journalists have had a field day with the news. This is Jeff Randall in the Telegraph Business News of October 18th. First he quotes from a Dow Jones report of May 2003: "Outside Euro, UK stands to lose economic and political clout". Then he writes: "For the sad souls who cling to the fast-disappearing hope of that headline ever coming true, it has been another miserable week. Facts are stripping away the Eurofanatics' clothing. Very soon they will stand covered by nothing but the jock-strap of their own perverse desire to further erode British Sovereignty". He goes on to make the points about the Open Europe survey showing that a majority of British CEOs believe that EU costs exceed benefits, and Commissioner Verheugen's estimate of EU regulatory costs. Ruth Lea of the Centre for Policy Studies writes: "In the business community, it is no longer heretical to suggest that the UK should move to a free trade area with the EU ... those who believe otherwise are locked in the outdated geo-economics of the mid-twentieth century". In late October I dined in London with a group of prominent businessmen. Our genial host, in the course of his business, regularly hosts lunches for small groups of CEOs from major British companies. He remarked that five years ago, it was eccentric and "almost indecent" (his word) to express any doubt about the EU, or the Single Market, or the euro. Today that has all changed, and the mainstream view is that the EU is costing more than it is worth, and that we need radical renegotiation. We are reaching a tipping point. It is increasingly difficult to argue that "the benefits of EU membership are self-evident", as lazy thinkers and government ministers love to say. Indeed, the opposite is true. My big worry is that our Party, fearing to talk about the EU issue, is not only falling behind the public mood, but risks missing out a key shift in business opinion as well. (Continues....) To subscribe to this regular newsletter please e-mail rhelmer@europarl.eu.int