The United Kingdom should leave the European Union

In order to determine whether UK would be better off not being a member of EU I will present the viable alternatives to an EU-membership and make the case why these alternatives are not as beneficial to Britain as an EU-membership. First off I will present the benefits that an EU-membership confers and rebut the alternatives for the next round. Trade and single market benefits Britain`s membership in the EU has significantly increased Britain"s trade with the other EU-members. A report released by the Centre for European Reform (CER) estimated how much the trade with the other EU-countries had risen as a result of EU and contrasted it with the amount of trade that would have been done had not EU been established. They looked at the said countries GDP and exchange rates and combined these data with factors such as population, distance from Britain, whether or not they speak English or not, etc. When factoring in these variables and other controls, they found that the UK"s trade with other EU-members were 55 percent higher than would be expected had not UK been an EU-member. Since UK is a member of the common market, tariffs and quotas on products are removed between EU-members, thus encouraging free trade and exchange. Products that originate and are sold within EU circulate duty-free. In this way, trade occurs cheaper and more readily than it did before the single market was introduced. Since EU adopts a common external tariff (CET) on imports from non-member countries, it confers conformity between the member-countries by removing differences in trade restrictions imposed upon non-member countries. Thus it makes the whole of EU a reliable place for investment since you won"t have to worry about price differences and take that into consideration when thinking of investing in any EU country. For instance, that means that tariffs imposed on, say, imports of Samsung smartphones from South Korea would be the same in the UK as in Germany or Bulgaria. Therefore, the CET prevents individual countries from imposing their own unilateral tariffs on non-member countries, thus conferring stability within the EU as well as making sure to hold off protectionist pressures. Since customs and trade barriers were removed, trade in good has become less costly and less unpredictable. Prior to the European Union national rules that prevented " or at least made it harder " for companies to trade across borders and to settle in other countries were harmonized among the EU members so as to be recognized by other member states. This has especially facilitated the growth for medium and small-sized companies who before the establishment of the single market were practically unable to fulfil public procurement rules to bid contracts in other EU-members " thus favoured bigger companies who had the means to invest in such a costly enterprise to the expense of smaller companies " now have a much more favourable position to do business within EU. Companies are now able to sell goods, services and labour without having to comply with 28 different set of rulebooks. EU creates a minimum regulatory standards that one is required to follow, making you able to sell products unhindered. This way, exporters no longer have to create 28 different products in order to comply with 28 different set of national rules, thus making it a whole lot easier to trade and do business. The common market thus encourages more intra-EU trade and a more efficient allocation of resources, thereby leading to gains in consumer and producer welfare. Since removing trade barriers shifts consumers spending from domestic goods towards cheaper foreign goods, this will lead to a more effective economic output overall benefiting costumers as well as producers. Initially the single market was open for 345 million people but now it is accessed by over 500 million people. This is a signal achievement of the EU by allowing one to be able to work, to study and to retire wherever you want within EU. For instance, now, because of a common recognition of qualifications that applies between EU-countries, you don"t have to go through a bureaucratic nightmare you had to prior to when the single market were put in place. Prior to that it could take literally months to fill in the paperwork necessary to register for studying abroad. Now that cumbersome task that once was something that held many people is gone. http://www.cer.org.uk... Peace Not saying that war would break out if UK were to leave, one can"t deny the fact that EU has brought stability and peace to the continent. Historically Europe has been the most belligerent continent on the planet. However, with deeper integration, war between nations has been effectively thwarted by increased cooperation and trade in the EU. UK was an enthusiastic prompter - " having known the deep costs and tragedies that war and disunity entails " of deeper integration in 1957 when the Treaty of Rome was first signed and was a partaker in the foundations laid in the treaty. The treaties of Rome created the European Economic Community (EEC) through which deeper integration, including a common market, was achieved among the six founding members along with a common set of institutions. UK played an important role in the founding of this and the later treaties that were to come. Since UK played a great part then, it would be a shame if UK left EU, having been one of the prime and most influential establishers of the EU and, thus, undeniably brought peace and stability throughout Europe. http://en.wikipedia.org... British influence As opposed to what many would have us believe, I would make the case that UK wields and has wielded quite a large influence in EU ever since 1973 when it first became a member of the European Economic Community (EEC). In fact, Britain has been an influential contributor to many of the significant achievements by the European Union such as the single market, the enlargement to the south and to the east " which both were British led initiatives ", the foundation of the Common foreign and Security Police, etc. When considering the fact that UK has the fifth largest military, the sixth largest economy in the world, has a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and is an independent nuclear deterrent, all of the said combined brings a huge leverage when striking deals and negotiating with the other EU countries as well as other non-member countries through, for instance, UK commissionaires. Because EU gives UK the opportunity to have its say on and partake in the legislative changes on international forums such as climate change, foreign policy, global trade rules (the drafting of the free trade agreement with South Korea is currently celebrated as a British success), to name a few, greatly bolsters the image of Britain both inside and outside of the EU. http://www.globalfirepower.com... Indeed, UK joined the EEC because it came to the realisation that it was losing worldwide, geopolitical strength and influence due to the decolonization after the WWII and the fact that several countries left the Commonwealth of Nations such as Burma, Ireland, and South Yemen. Thus, once former assets to the British Empire were ceding from the Commonwealth by which Great Britain had once been able to assert itself as an influential global power. The Macmillan government in the 60s, however, saw great benefits in a rapprochement to the EEC through which it could regain its role as a global power and to catch up with the higher economic pace experienced by the EEC countries relative to the UK. Macmillan was therefore deeply involved in the work that led to the entry of Britain since he saw the huge political, diplomatic and, not the least, economic gains that could be made in pursuing deepening ties with EEC. http://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.history.ac.uk... An example of one of the successes for Britain"s part was the "patent package" reform that Britain was seeking to complete 2012/2013. The purpose of the package was the creation of a unitary patent protection in the EU, meaning that a single and common patent jurisdiction is valid and applicable in the EU. This has made it possible for investors (individuals, companies or institutions) to protect their inventions by just filling in a single patent application that is valid in any of the 28 member states. Prior to this legislation, an inventor had to validate the invention one by one in each member country; a burdensome task that would have involved huge costs for different kind of fees pertaining to patent offices, costs for patent agents, translation, etc. With the help of UK " deemed to have played a significant role in the drafting of the legislation " this legislation has dramatically reduced the costs for investors and thus the legislation has managed to spur research and investments in innovation, thus making EU more competitive to the rest of the world. https://s3.amazonaws.com... To summarize, EU has been beneficial to UK in the past and it continues to benefit UK even today. Even though EU is far from perfect and can be improved upon , it still is an important political platform for the UK as well as an important arena for trade. UK has played an important role in the forming of the EU and should remain so.