Britain's 35 years in the EU

Business for a New Group. a pro-European think tank has published a report I wrote on the depth of integration between the UK and the other 26 EU members. Here is the summary and a link to the full report…

On 1st January 1973, the UK joined the European Economic Community, the forerunner to today’s European Union. 2008 therefore marks the 35th anniversary of British entry into the EU, and with any anniversary, it offers the opportunity to take stock.

Since 1973 Britain has changed in so many ways, and EU entry has been a vital ingredient in this changing picture. In this 35 year period, the economic and cultural linkages between the UK and the rest of Europe have grown and been strengthened. Businesses, their employees and consumers have made huge and irreversible gains from Britain’s membership of the EU.

“We are all Europeans now” highlights the growing integration between Britain and the rest of Europe. It maps the economic and cultural linkages between the UK and the rest of Europe.

Some of the trends it identifies include:
• Europe accounts for over 55% of the UK’s total export market.
• British firms sell more than £200bn of goods and services into the single market – equivalent to some £550m every day.
• More than 750,000 British companies are estimated to do business with the rest of Europe
and more than 3 million jobs in the UK are linked to exports to Europe.
• Several British companies from the airports operator BAA to Abbey National to mobile
operator 02 have been taken over by “European companies.”
• European M&A activity is very high – in 20006 54.6% of the £77.7bn worth of UK
companies taken over in 2006 were by fellow European companies.
• All the major continental banks have major HQ in London, including Deutsche Bank,
Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Kleinwort, BNP Paribas and UBS.
• Immigration of skilled workers from old Europe and less skilled ones from the accession
countries has boosted the British economy, lowered inflation and added to the Treasury’s
coffers. Between May 2004 and June 2007 683,000 people from the A8 nations registered to work in the UK.
• As many as 1.6 million British people live in other European countries, either for work or in retirement. Spain is home to at least 750,000 Britons and France to at least 200,000.
• Thousands of British students have taken part in university exchanges, with more than 7,000 students from the UK taking part in Erasmus exchanges in 2005-06.
• 50 million visits by British people to mainland Europe were made in 2006 precipitated by the expansion of low cost airlines.
• British sport has benefited from an influx of Europeans, not least in football, where 57.7% of players in the Premiership in the 2005-6 season were from Europe and the rest of the world.
• English, spoken by 38% of Europeans, is the most widely spoken foreign language
throughout Europe.

Many of the links are quiet and some are even hidden, but the UK’s has become increasingly influenced by Europe. That does not mean that the job has been completed – it has not and there is much more than can be done to increase integration and reduce further the barriers to the free flow of goods, services, trade, investment and people throughout Europe. On the UK’s 35th anniversary we can reflect on some of the ways life has changed in the UK as a result of closer economic and cultural integration with the rest of Europe.

http://www.bnegroup.org/info/we_are_all_europeans.pdf