Appointment of new Europe Minister
Responding to the appointment of Geoff Hoon as the new Minister for Europe, Business for New Europe issued the following statement:
“The appointment of a Minister for Europe who can attend Cabinet is an important reflection of the significance of Europe to the UK. Over half the UK’s trade is with Europe, and millions of our jobs are supported by the UK’s membership of the EU.
UK business enjoys many benefits from our poistive engagement with the rest of Europe
The UK public is aware of these benefits with a recent poll on The Future of Europe showing that 49% of UK citizens recognised that one of the two main achievement of the EU has been the free movement of people, goods and services (Eurobarometer, April 2006). Furthermore the UK economy is able to atract inward investment flows as a result of EU membership. For instance, a recent report showed that approximately 73,000 jobs in finance and the City of London depend on business from the other EU states.
Even though the debates about the single currency and the European Constitution are in a hiatus, there are many issues of importance to UK business, such as achieving competitive markets, energy policy and reform of the budget. We urge the government to support these positive efforts for reform and to do more to persuade the EU to accelerate the impetus for economic reform.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. BNE’s aim is to support the UK’s active engagement in Europe, and a reformed, enlarged and free-market EU.
2 . BNE’s principles are as follows:
• We support the UK’s membership of the EU and oppose withdrawal to the margins;
we support positive and constructive engagement with the EU as the only sensible approach and as vital to our national interests.
• We support a vision of a prosperous free-market Europe able to compete in a globalised world.
• We support economic liberalisation and oppose excessive EU regulation, centralisation and red tape.
• We support institutional reform, further cooperation between EU member states where it is in Britain's interests and oppose old-fashioned federalism.
• We support the enlargement of the EU including Turkey, and recognise the benefits that the recent wave of enlargement have brought.
3. BNE’s Advisory Council consists of:
Leon Brittan (Vice Chairman, UBS)
Roger Carr (Chairman, Centrica)
Richard Cousins (Non-Executive Director, P&O)
Guy Dawson (Founding Partner, Tricorn Partners)
Charles Dunstone (CEO, Carphone Warehouse)
Niall FitzGerald (Chairman, Reuters)
Chris Gibson-Smith (Chairman, London Stock Exchange)
Philip Hampton (Chairman, Sainsbury)
David Levin (CEO, United Business Media)
John Parker (Chairman, National Grid plc)
Vijay Patel (CEO, Waymade Healthcare)
Stuart Popham (Senior Partner, Clifford Chance)
Mike Rake (Chairman, KPMG International)
Nigel Rudd (Chairman, Boots)
Bryan Sanderson (Chairman, Standard Chartered)
Martin Sorrell (CEO, WPP)
Peter Sutherland (Chairman, BP)
Rosemary Thorne (Finance Director, Ladbrokes)
Christopher Tugendhat (Chairman - European Advisory Board, Lehman Brothers)
Bob Wigley (Chairman - Europe, Middle East & Africa, Merril Lynch)
4. BNE will be run on a day-to-day basis by Zaki Cooper (Director), whom will be supported by Roland Rudd (Chairman) and Sir Stephen Wall (Vice-Chairman).
5. For further information about Business for New Europe, see www.bnegroup.org or contact +44 (0) 207 256 6575, press@bnegroup.org
