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European relationship must be renegotiated, says BCC

A major survey of business from the British Chambers of Commerce shows support for “renegotiation” of Britain’s relationship with Europe.

The EU Business Barometer tested five scenarios and found that employment law; health and safety law; and regional development policies were most important to businesses.

The majority of respondents wished to stay in Europe with transfer of specific powers from Brussels to Westminster, while a full withdrawal received the highest negative rating.

John Longworth, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “These results say a lot about the UK business community’s attitudes towards Britain’s relationship with the European Union. Companies believe that re-negotiation, rather than further integration or outright withdrawal, is most likely to deliver business and economic benefit to the UK.

“There are some striking features in our survey of business opinion. 42%, a plurality, now believe that maintaining the status quo in Britain’s relationship with the EU could have a negative impact on our economic interests – nearly three times as many as the 15% who view the status quo positively. These findings suggest that UK businesses increasingly feel that some sort of change to Britain’s relationship with the EU is needed to boost our trading prospects.

“We now have confirmation of what we’ve suspected for some time: namely, that employment and health and safety are the areas where companies would like to see legislative competence return to Westminster from Brussels. From a business perspective, any re-negotiation of Britain’s relationship with the European Union must therefore focus on these areas which are not integral to the functioning of the Single Market in goods and services.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .