Article: Business chiefs back Brussels against protectionism

More than a third of top UK business leaders say they want to strengthen the power of Brussels to tackle protectionist barriers thrown up by some European Union member states, accordingto a survey of senior -executives.

It found 38 per cent supported giving more powers to the European Commission to implement fully the single market, which was intended to allow free movement of people, goods, services and capital.

Seventy-eight per cent said the single market - which remains incomplete more than 20 years after the legislation creating it was passed - had been helpful to UK business. However, 22 per cent said it had been unhelpful and 55 per cent said the Commission already had enough powers.

The findings are part of the annual Ipsos Mori -"Captains of Industry" survey, which interviewed 102 executives from Britain's largest businesses.

Most of the executives hold the title of chairman, chief executive, president or managing director and almost half were drawn from the FTSE-350.

The questions were commissioned by Business for New Europe, a pro-EU lobby group, to mark the 20th anniversary in November of the passage of the Single European Act in the UK.

An earlier ICM survey commissioned by Open Europe, which campaigns to turn Europe into a looser trading area, found a majority of 1,000 chief executives wanted the UK to renegotiate its EU membership to take back powers from -Brussels.

Roland Rudd, Business for New Europe chairman, said: "The benefits of the single market are clear to the business community. The fact that a significant percentage of business leaders favour giving the European Commission greater powers to implement the act underlines their desire to see it more effectively imposed."

A manifesto published by Business for New Europe at the end of last year set out ideas for making the EU more business-friendly, with contributions from 36 top executives.

They included figures from the City of London such as Bob Wigley, chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, and Sir Tom -McKillop, Royal Bank of Scotland chairman. Among other contributors were Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, Stephen Hester, British Land chief executive, and Anthony Habgood, Whitbread chairman.

While many were critical of Brussels' tendency to over-regulate, there was support for Charlie McCreevy, the Irish commissioner for the internal market, who has challenged policies designed to protect domestic companies in countries such as France and Italy.