Q: As Jean-Claude Juncker says the EU wants a fair deal for Britain, does it have more to lose from Brexit than the UK does?
Daniel Hannan is a Conservative MEP for South East England. He blogs at www.hannan.co.uk, says Yes
David Cameron began by promising to opt out of social policy and employment law, disapply the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, repatriate control of criminal justice, and curb the power of the European Court. All such talk has been dropped, and Britain is now, in effect, banging the table and demanding the status quo. If Brussels is so unwilling to make reforms when we’re about to vote on leaving, imagine how we’d be treated if we voted to stay. We are the EU’s second-largest economy and chief military power. We buy far more from the other member states than we sell to them and, on the day we left, we’d become easily their largest export market. Yet we can’t change our membership terms from within. The treaties don’t work that way. If we want a looser arrangement, based on commerce and co-operation rather than political merger, we must vote to leave. That’s when the real concessions will come.
Lucy Thomas is deputy director of Britain Stronger In Europe, says No
Britain has much to lose from abandoning Europe, and everything to gain from staying in. The average household benefits by £3,000 a year from exports to Europe, and we have received £26.5bn in investment a year from EU countries. These benefits would be at risk if we left. Particularly given that the various Leave campaigns have refused to state how we would retain market access upon leaving. By staying in, we can look to a safe and prosperous future. Research shows that completing the Single Market could create another 800,000 jobs in Britain by 2030. And the EU is using its muscle to negotiate trade deals on our behalf with the US, Canada, and Japan, among others. Not to mention how co-operation with our EU allies keeps us safer from crime and terrorism. Business knows that Britain is stronger, safer, and better off in Europe than we would be out on our own, and leaving would be a leap into the dark.