A little over a year ago, the Economist wrote a piece analysing Britain’s place in Europe. There wasn’t a lot of good news. Efforts to reform the way Brussels works were simply “making things worse” as “other countries are tiring of British demands”. The best we could hope for, it was argued, was to “rediscover the virtues of muddling along”.
They were wrong. The last year shows why.
The Prime Minister’s speech in January set a clear vision for the reformed Europe which we will work with our partners to achieve: one that is open, flexible, competitive and democratically accountable. Since then, this vision has won support across Europe. Increasingly, the argument isn’t about whether the EU needs to reform, but how it should reform.
To quote (again) the Economist, this time eleven months later: “continental Europeans are coming round to the long-held British view that the EU should be smaller, less bureaucratic and lighter on business”.
We are making progress. To take a few examples:
- The first ever cut to the EU’s multi-annual budget, secured by the Prime Minister and a group of allies, saving billions.
- The launch of negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US by the PM at the G8 Summit in Lough Erne. This would be the biggest trade deal in history, worth up to £10bn a year to the UK. We followed this up with agreement on an EU-Canada trade deal, worth up to £1.3bn a year to the UK. Separately, 2013 saw the launch of EU-Japan trade talks which could add 0.6% to the whole of the EU’s GDP.
- Decentralisation of decision-making on fisheries – the first time the EU has actually given powers back to member states, and an end to the wasteful practice of discarding healthy, edible fish.
- Action to cut EU red tape. In October, the Prime Minister, Barroso and leaders from seven countries listened to the Prime Minister’s Business Taskforce and businesses from across the EU and their call for less burdensome EU regulation and a deeper single market in services and digital. On that front, we also secured an important exemption for microbusinesses from a set of unnecessary accounting regulations.
- A new single European patent, reducing costs to entrepreneurs by up to 80%. One of three courts, focused on biotechnology and the life sciences, will sit in London, reinforcing the UK’s leadership and excellence in those fields and bringing in at least £200m a year to the UK .
There is much, much more to do. In 2014, a new European Commission presents an opportunity for a new way of doing business in Europe. As the Dutch have said, we need a new principle: “European where necessary, national where possible”. What people across Europe need from the Commission is a laser focus on building Europe’s competitiveness and enabling growth.
Our achievements this year have fired me up for the challenge of making that a reality.
A Happy – and fruitful – New Year to you all.