The UK should leave the EU for it's own benefit

Britain and the EU Once there was an empire. It had a queen and Earl Grey tea. Now there is only Britain and a lose collection of Commonwealth countries with which Britain has mainly history and a few extended trade contracts in common. Now Britain is an EU member. And Britain doesn’t like it. There is no glory in being one under many and standing next to countries like Germany, France or Italy who all have about the same rights and saying. This side of the topic will show that Britain, which has always been treated like the special child, it thinks it is, benefits more being in the EU than being out. Index 1. Financial Misunderstanding 1.1 European trade regulations 1.2 European job market 1.3 Quality of life benefits 1.4 Political Influence 2. EU Membership or EEA? 3. Moral obligation 1. Financial Misunderstanding The key factor to understand the problem of the EU and Britain is, that the EU is no bank that gives you interest on your money, it’s a service that you pay for. You pay £15 an hour for a house maid and don’t have to clean yourself, which gives you more time to relax or focus on the work that pays your maid. The EU is a similar service. Wealthy countries such as Britain don’t get the same or more money back in plain money, but they get trade benefits that lower the overall costs for British companies and citizens significantly. To put it the other way round: take away the EU membership and the external costs (to the EU) will stop, but raise the internal costs of Britain to make up for what is no longer automatically provided by the EU. Britain, the third largest contributor after Germany and France, gives about €105 per person and year to the EU, which is already significantly less than what citizens of Denmark (€265) and Germany (€204) pay. And Britain gets extra-treatment. In 1984 Margaret Thatcher ensured and special rebate, which was roughly €3.6bn in 2011. Together with the average “per capita income” from the EU membership the single citizen pays €74.53 each year for the EU membership in tax. [1] These €75 are the “fee” for the following benefits: 1.1 European trade regulations The EU is world’s largest single market. This means there are no tariffs and custom duties that British companies pay for [2]. This means the export quantity does not influence the costs for British economy, ergo: they can sell more products to more people for the same money. The EU also provides a set of rules concerning quality standards. This means on the one side, that British companies have a standard to match, but on the other can they expect the same standards to be lived up to by the import companies. Import is a crucial part of a countries economy, because no country can provide all demanded products and product parts on its own. In fact, the UK should know that best for its success as an Empire was built on that logic. So it is desirable to make import as standardised and easy as possible. European doesn’t float the UK with cheap and low quality products it provides cheap and high quality products and enables Britain to do the same, because the import of raw products from the continent is equally easy and cost efficient. The EU regulations furthermore make trade quicker. If there is no tariff to pay and no paper work for individual regulations to make, import and export can be done more time efficient. While shipments from A to B are now limited by the natural time the transport requires there are no time consuming border problems and fees that slow down the process. In modern times, where many companies reduce their costs with JIT (just in time) production, meaning they have little to no storage of raw material, is this highly success related. 1.2 European job market The UK enjoys to complain about cheap labour from the EU. However are there three wrong assumptions connected to this complain. For once the assumption that the EU labourers are much cheaper than UK citizens. Because Romanian people, living in the UK face the same living costs as UK citizens and get the same minimum wage. An immigrant has to pay rent and buy food as well and faces the language boundaries and often the competition in the low-educated job sector. Low-educated Brits, who fear they will lose out to Romanian immigrants fear people who can adjust their lifestyle to their income. If minimum wage is not enough to live for them, they will move on, because that’s the logic that they drove them to the UK in the first place. The second wrong assumption is, that the EU labourers are “taking job away”. If a company decides to employ someone who speaks less English and has no British education, than they do that for two reasons: either there are not enough Brits that are willing to work in this sector or not enough that can work in this sector. It’s a question of education and specialisation. And the EU helps companies to employ specialists from countries where a certain product has a longer tradition and the education is of higher quality in this area. These employees don’t take jobs that Brits would fill, but fill jobs that can’t be filled otherwise. They ensure quality and fight the skill shortage in the UK [3] Third wrong assumption is, that this is a one-way-street. That it’s easier for people from the continent to come Britain simply lies in the fact, that people from the continent are more willing to learn English. Well educated Brits that speak French or Spanish can easily be “borrowed” to these countries. The unwillingness (or arrogance?) to learn other languages is what slows down the UK on the EU job market. About 75% of the UK population is unable to speak any crucial international language properly (apart from English) [4], which means they naturally fear to move even when it’s only for a short time. The EU is therefore a long needed competition that encourages a better education. 1.3 Quality of life benefits Traveling costs are low due to the EU membership. There is no need for a visa within the first three months of a stay and the lack of border regulations makes it quicker and simpler to go on vacation to other countries and to bring back souvenirs (because bringing them back is usually not related to extra fees) [2]. Health insurance and security has been approached on an EU wide scale resulting in private and business trips to the European continent without any fear what happens if something happens. Studying, Living and Consuming outside the UK has become easier, more affordable and desirable and the Brits would face new restrictions to their ability to move and travel as soon as the UK leaves the EU. This means that on a short and long-term basis the British society would pay its financial independence with a lack of personal independence for each citizen. 1.4 Political Influence The EU membership comes with political influence. All the trade regulations that the UK directly benefits of, can be influenced by the UK. Which means that they do not only have to match the standards, they can also influence what kind of standards there are [5]. As the largest single market, the EU has much more political power to ensure its interests in contracts with others such as the US or Asia. It also means, that once an agreement with the EU has been made, the UK automatically profits from it. In conclusion: the UK government gains influence while giving up some workload simultaneously. 2. EU Membership or EEA? Many benefits that come from the EU membership are automatically included if you are part of the EEA (European Economic Area), such as to travel, live, work, study and retire anywhere in the EU. So there is the theoretical possibility that Britain could leave the EU and stay within the EEA to not lose out on many opportunities. However would this require being accepted into the EEA after quitting the EU and take all the political influence away from Britain [2]. This doesn’t go well with the British mentality and would give all the power to remaining EU countries to decide, whether they want Britain after it made clear it doesn’t want them. 3. Moral obligation The EU is not only business. It also is an idea of tolerance, understanding and peace [6]. Founded during WWII it also wants to ensure wealth for everyone within it. That’s why the EU supports less wealthy countries to make living better for the people there. Which is the key to peace. Hitler’s popularity in the 1930s heavily based on the poor financial situation in which Germany was after WWI, because he promised work and respect. This is the European idea and quitting will not only make a financial statement it will also make a moral statement. This probably the most subjective benefit but not standing for greater values than only personal interest is something the UK has to think about, before they push themselves out of the EU. Sources [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk... [2] http://www.euromove.org.uk...[3] http://www.1stcontact.com...[4] http://www.bbc.com...[5] http://www.euromove.org.uk...[6] http://europa.eu...