EU vote: CBI tells employers to 'turn up volume' on benefits of UK membership

Employers’ organisation urges businesses to make stronger and clearer case for Europe as isolation fears grow

Britain’s leading employers’ organisation will urge its members “to turn up the volume” about the benefits of EU membership amid concerns that a vote to exit in the referendum would lead to isolation.

Sir Mike Rake, president of the CBI, will tell the organisation’s annual dinner in London that businesses have to make a stronger argument for Europe in language that makes sense to the public.

The call came as Deutsche Bank became the first leading financial company to state publicly that it would consider moving part of its London-based operation out of the UK if Britain decides to end more than four decades of EU membership in the in/out referendum pledged by the government by the end of 2017.

Rake will say: “Business has increasingly spoken out on this crucial issue and the time has come to turn up the volume. Speaking out clearly and in a language which people can understand. In the months to come, our country will have to make its own choice. A choice between openness and isolation. Between shaping the future or retreating into the past.”

With members on both sides of the argument, the CBI took a neutral position when Tony Blair’s government debated the merits of joining the euro in the early 2000s. But the employers’ organisation has taken a more aggressive approach to EU membership, arguing that a vote to leave would put jobs at risk and cost Britain influence.

A report published by the CBI in late 2013 said the benefits of EU membership were worth £3,000 for every UK household, a figure disputed by those campaigning for Britain to leave. During the election campaign, Nigel Farage, leader of Ukip, said the UK’s membership fee for the EU was £20bn year.

apanese, German and US diplomats have been warning the UK privately for some time that foreign-owned businesses are worried about the so-called Brexit scenario, but the election result has made businesses on both sides of the argument more willing to express their views in public.

After the chief executive of JCB, the digger manufacturer, said on Sunday that a UK exit would have no negative impact on trade with the rest of Europe, Deutsche Bank is reported to have set up a working group to study the ramifications of a referendum vote to leave the EU. It employs 9,000 people in the UK.

The comments from the CBI president reflect concern in the pro-EU camp to avoid the negative and dry tone of the Better Together campaign in the Scottish referendum last year.

Rake will say: “The question is not whether the UK would survive outside the EU, but whether it would thrive. No one has yet set out a credible alternative future to EU membership. The current alternatives are not realistic options – little or no influence and the obligation to comply with EU principles whilst still paying most of the costs.

“Norway is the 10th highest contributor to the EU budget, despite not being a member, and it took Switzerland nine years to negotiate and implement partial access to the single market.”

Almost half of Britain’s exports go to other EU countries, despite the five-year sovereign debt crisis that has stifled growth in the 18-country eurozone. Attempts by UK companies to expand into the faster growing economies of Asia have proved only partly successful.

“Business must be crystal clear that membership is in our national interest,” Rake will say. “The EU is key to our national prosperity. Letting us set the trade agenda, be part of the biggest free trade deal ever negotiated – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – and be able to properly compete with global giants like China and India.”

While acknowledging public concerns around immigration, Rake will warn that the NHS could not operate without skilled migration and that attracting the “best and brightest European talent” is good for the economy.

The CBI has backed David Cameron’s view that it is in the interests of the UK to remain within a reformed Europe, with its director general, John Cridland, saying previously that the EU needs to “do more of what it is good at and less of what it is not good at”.

Rake will flesh out this argument in Wednesday evening’s speech, urging that regulation on lifestyle issues should be left to member states, adding that “poorly thought-out legislation – especially on employment law – can be a real headache for business”.

“Today the moment is ripe for reform. The things we want are shared by our European colleagues and the EU can be more competitive without the need for treaty change,” he will say. “Reform will not happen overnight. But by working with our allies on an ambitious – yet achievable – agenda, we can make it a reality. So we support the prime minister’s drive for a more competitive EU. And the new government can count on business’s support to make this happen.”

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/20/eu-referendum-vote-cbi-uk-membership

And let's face it, when the CBI says 'jump' Cameron says 'how high'.

Correct. And when Dave campaigns to stay in there will be blood on the carpet.

Rock on

The CBI also wanted us to join The euro!!!






And is run by a bunch of establishment puppets!!!



Interestingly, if you look up the two main men, Sir Michael Rake and john cridland (CBE) on Google, you will see that they both have search findings removed under the recent EU rules to hide criminal history, scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions or public conduct etc...!


I wonder why...!?



It's also surprising that an organisation purporting to be looking after jobs and businesses want to stay in an organisatiow that damages jobs and businesses with enormous amounts of unnecessary and expensive regulations and restrictions...


Here is an interesting read...


https://rogerhelmermep.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/the-eu-and-the-economy-part-of-the-same-debate/

Irn Bru wrote:Correct. And when Dave campaigns to stay in there will be blood on the carpet.

Rock on

are you suggesting that mp's & the PM should not be able to campaign either way?
cameron has said he thinks the UK is better off in, he may well be wrong in that assessment. However that does not mean tory MP's have to join with him in that view,a s far as I know there will be a free vote once the referendum is underway. labour MP's may also vote toleave as well which seems a more likely occurrence now the leadership has apparently had a Damascene experience on this issue.
Or perhaps you may think they are just saying that for effect rather than any sincerity?

Tommy Monk wrote:
The CBI also wanted us to join The euro!!!






And is run by a bunch of establishment puppets!!!



Interestingly, if you look up the two main men, Sir Michael Rake and john cridland (CBE) on Google, you will see that they both have search findings removed under the recent EU rules to hide criminal history, scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions or public conduct etc...!


I wonder why...!?



It's also surprising that an organisation purporting to be looking after jobs  and businesses want to stay in an organisatiow that damages jobs and businesses with enormous amounts of unnecessary and expensive regulations and restrictions...


Here is an interesting read...


https://rogerhelmermep.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/the-eu-and-the-economy-part-of-the-same-debate/

I suggest when googling things you do not use google.co.uk but rather google.com, america is not involved with that nonsense

If you cannot get your browser to go to .com then put this in the address bar

www.google.com/ncr

that will reset any local exceptions and always bring up www.google.com you can of course override that by putting google.co.uk in address bar.

Yes I know, tried using .com before from phone but it reset to .co.uk

Have reset it now and seems to be working...

The Prime Minister was in one of his let’s-crack-on-with-it moods. When in this frame of mind he smacks his hands together and bites on his upper lip before speaking nobly of public endeavour and, er, common purpose.
All bottom and hairdo, he strode on stage after an introduction from CBI president Sir Michael Rake who had caned the ‘over-simplistic statements’ from politicians about energy bills. 

Sir Michael said ‘the public deserves better’. Nice echo there of Ed Miliband’s ‘Britain deserves better’ baloney.

Just a few hours earlier, the CBI had issued a report claiming that Britain would be better off if they stayed in the European Union. 

Sir Michael claimed that we would be ‘marginalised’ if we bailed out of the European project. To quit Brussels would mean ‘no influence, no MEPs, no votes,’ said Sir Michael. 

No votes? Can he be thinking of the European Commission?

Mr Cameron spoke for 15 minutes and then took questions for another quarter of an hour. He said he had been on trade missions to just about every major economy, ‘except for Argentina’. Some light laughter at this. 

After tub-thumping about deficit reduction, welfare reform, HS2 and other matters, he urged big business to send executives into schools to give pro-business lectures. During the questions there was some moaning about Tory Euroscepticism – and a sense, perhaps, that the CBI would rather not have the uncertainty of a referendum on our membership of the EU. 

Mr Cameron told them that public support for the Brussels union was ‘wafer thin’ and that ‘you can’t stay in these organisations unless you take the British people with you’. 

The room heard this in silence.The vulgarities of democratic will, eh? You sometimes feel the CBI would prefer a world in which elections were not held.

How much easier business planning would then be.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2487450/The-PM-spoke-public-endeavour-er-common-purpose-writes-QUENTIN-LETTS.html

The Devil, You Know wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:Correct. And when Dave campaigns to stay in there will be blood on the carpet.

Rock on

are you suggesting that mp's & the PM should not be able to campaign either way?
cameron has said he thinks the UK is better off in, he may well be wrong in that assessment. However that does not mean tory MP's have to join with him in that view,a s far as I know there will be a free vote once the referendum is underway. labour MP's may also vote toleave as well which seems a more likely occurrence now the leadership has apparently had a Damascene experience on this issue.
Or perhaps you may think they are just saying that for effect rather than any sincerity?

The very fact that I was talking about there being blood on the carpet clearly shows that they will campaign either way. Surely that was easy to understand.

The Devil, You Know wrote:

Tommy Monk wrote:
The CBI also wanted us to join The euro!!!






And is run by a bunch of establishment puppets!!!



Interestingly, if you look up the two main men, Sir Michael Rake and john cridland (CBE) on Google, you will see that they both have search findings removed under the recent EU rules to hide criminal history, scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions or public conduct etc...!


I wonder why...!?



It's also surprising that an organisation purporting to be looking after jobs  and businesses want to stay in an organisatiow that damages jobs and businesses with enormous amounts of unnecessary and expensive regulations and restrictions...


Here is an interesting read...


https://rogerhelmermep.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/the-eu-and-the-economy-part-of-the-same-debate/

I suggest when googling things you do not use google.co.uk but rather google.com, america is not involved with that nonsense

If you cannot get your browser to go to .com then put this in the address bar

www.google.com/ncr

that will reset any local exceptions and always bring up www.google.com you can of course override that by putting google.co.uk in address bar.

I remember that David Cameron was all for it as well just weeks after Black Wednesday when he was an advisor to Lamont. Was in The Times.

You never know,Cameron might pull something out of the bag & make a good cause for leaving the EU.But the problem that we have with him,is that he is a leftie but hoping that now the Tories have a majority,he will be cured of loonie leftyism & make some decent decisions.

Shady wrote:You never know,Cameron might pull something out of the bag & make a good cause for leaving the EU.But the problem that we have with him,is that he is a leftie but hoping that now the Tories have a majority,he will be cured of loonie leftyism & make some decent decisions.

I think it would be hilarious if the public vote to stay in the EU and then I can what you piss and moan, as you always do for another few decades.

Of course all those working for the EU are Io favour of all things EU.


I am in favour of our sovereignty and our democracy, our right self govt, self rule and self determination, and control of our laws, rules and regulations with them all being made by our directly elected representatives in our national parliament and for us to have total control over our borders.


That is why I am against the EU.