Neither the In nor the Out side of the European debate is making its case with any kind of conviction – that was the verdict of some of the region’s leading manufacturers in a debate held at Crowe Clark Whitehill’s Midlands office.
The debate was hosted by Johnathan Dudley, Midlands managing partner and national head of manufacturing at the audit, tax and advisory firm.
He opened the debate by calling for a show of hands on who in the audience had voted on the last occasion the British public had the opportunity to show their thoughts on Europe – 1975.
Only three out of 30 could recall voting on that eventful day and Mr Dudley said it proved a point – that many people in the workplace had never known anything other than membership of the European Union, let alone had a say on our membership.
The general consensus was that the Out campaign was quoting lots of statistics, which had not been validated and that the In campaign was running a negative campaign, based on fear of change and the threat of being out of Europe.
Business leaders in the room felt that they would have little influence over this debate as non-economic/business matters would take over but that they would be the ones to shoulder the outcome should it be an Out vote.
Mr Dudley added: “Most of the group felt that the ideal would be to stay in Europe because of the opportunities presented by being part of wider trading. However, everyone said that they do not want a more federal Europe, but a better Europe with positive change.”
It was agreed that David Cameron’s negotiations are critical and the question was asked whether he had given himself enough time to negotiate and that any substantive changes achieved would require a Treaty.
One of the delegates pointed out that any Treaty change would have to be put to a referendum in three of the 28 member states and questioned how long that would take.
Another made the point that countries in Europe don’t want Great Britain to have the right to pick and choose and why would a special case be made for Great Britain which would set a precedent for others to opt out of bits that they don’t like.
“We are currently going into Europe on the same basis as before, to do more trade. In fact, as members, we import more now and don’t export any more so if we come out of Europe would there be any real difference?” he said.
A far bigger factor than the ability to trade freely and move capital and labour around Europe was the fluctuations of the pound and the euro, one exporter said.
“But we have learned to cope with that, and so we could learn to cope with being out of the EU. I believe our customers would still buy from us because they like our products and the quality we provide.” Another added that ‘ why won’t EU states want to agree tariffs with a non EU UK?, we are a major customer of theirs and that need not change’.
Mr Dudley concluded that on balance the feeling was that Great Britain could well vote to leave Europe, but that it took a lot of debate to get to this point and in reality there is still a lack of clarity or conviction and that business will cope with the decision, regardless of what it is.