...impact of EU membership on the UK This note examines the various channels through which membership of the EU affects the UK economy. A general sense of the EU’s economic impact can be gained by reading Section 1 alone. Subsequent sections deal with particular issues, such as the EU’s effect on UK trade relations, in more detail, and compare the UK’s situation with alternative arrangements. Contents 1 Introduction and summary 2 2 Cost-benefit analyses of EU membership 5 3 The effect of the EU on UK trade relations 6 4 Impact of immigration from the EU 16 5 The impact of EU regulation 20 6 Fiscal consequences of EU membership – the EU budget 23 7 The EU’s effect on consumer prices 28 8 Foreign direct investment (FDI) 30 Appendix table: a comparison of the EU with alternative trading arrangements 32 Boxes Would independence over trade policy lead to better results? 15 The EU budget – winners and losers 27 Trade barriers and economic efficiency 29 Related Library briefings Leaving the EU, Research Paper RP13/42 In brief: UK-EU economic relations, Standard Note SN6091 Norway’s relationship with the EU, Standard Note SN6522 Switzerland’s relationship with the EU, Standard Note SN6090 The UK and Europe: time for a new relationship?, Standard Note SN6393 1 Introduction and summary 1.1 Understanding the economic impact of EU membership EU membership influences...
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...Sovereignty is used to describe the idea of the power of law making unrestricted by any legal limit, Parliamentary sovereignty is part of the uncodified constitution of the United Kingdom. It dictates that Parliament can make or unmake any laws as it is the ultimate legal authority in the UK. Parliament is still sovereign as it can make law on any matter and it has legislative supremacy. However parliamentary sovereignty can be questioned due to the membership of the European Union and the Human Rights Act. Parliament can make laws on any matter due to Dicey in ‘Law of the Constitution (1885).’ He said that ‘in theory Parliament has total power. It is sovereign'. He states a number of reasons as to how this is possible. Firstly Dicey points out that Parliament can pass laws on any subject without legal restriction therefore it is sovereign. This principle is a result of the election of the Members of Parliament (MPs), by the electorate which gives them authority to represent and pass legislation on their behalf. Parliament being able to make laws on any matter can be traced back to the Bill of Rights 1689 where it was said that the monarch alone could not pass or repeal laws without Parliament's consent. Parliament is also free to modify its own makeup and authority. This is confirmed in the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 which removed the veto powers of the House of Lords and the Life Peerages Act 1958 which apart from giving the Prime Minister flexibility to modify the composition...
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...The European Economic Area (EEA) Model The European Economic Area (EEA) was formed in 1994 in order to extend the European Union’s provisions on its internal market to countries in the European Free Trade Area (EFTA). EU legislation relating to the internal market becomes part of the legislation of the EEA countries once they have agreed to incorporate it. Implementation and enforcement are then monitored by specific EFTA bodies and a Joint Parliamentary Committee. The EU and two of its EEA partners — Norway and Iceland — are also linked by various ‘northern policies’ and forums which focus on the rapidly evolving northern reaches of Europe and the Arctic region as a whole. While Switzerland is not part of the EEA, it remains a member of EFTA. More than 120 sectoral bilateral treaties linking the country with the EU incorporate largely the same provisions as those adopted by the other EEA countries in the fields of the free movement of people, goods, services and capital. What does the EEA agreement include? The EEA agreement includes: Free movement of goods, capital, services and persons. Agriculture and fisheries are not covered by the EEA agreement. Common competition regulations (cooperation on the regulation of competition, state aid and monopolies) and harmonizing company law. Cooperation on transport policies. Common veterinary regulations (but as a main rule tariffs on trade in agricultural goods still applies). Cooperation...
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...a thumping majority, upending concerns that a Labour Party win could derail fragile UK economic recovery but making the London business community fearful of Conservatives’ plan to call a referendum on Britain’s European Union membership. For some time now, citizens of the UK and the wider Europe have argued for putting curbs on migration and a rollback of European institutions’ mandate of ever-stricter oversight of national policy issues as European peripheral countries found themselves defenseless in the wake of the sovereign debt crisis. In a 2013 poll carried out by Pew Research Center, a majority of 8000 respondents gave a decisive thumbs down to further integration of the EU, that led the think-tank researchers to report a ‘full blown crisis of confidence’ in the European project. Capitalizing on this anger of the British towards the supranational organisation, Prime Minister David Cameron had promised that if the Conservatives formed the government in 2015, his party will call a Yes/No vote on EU membership. Not that Mr. Cameron wants a Brexit. At most, the Prime Minister is using the referendum as a ploy to push through his package of reforms, which call for curbs on migrant worker welfare rights and a treaty change. There is also the question of how much influence the UK can wield in eurozone decision making since it is not a part of the single currency. Support from European partners is likely to be scant. While Poland has expressed opposition to any limits...
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...To what extent is UK membership of the EU an opportunity for UK businesses? (40) To a large extent, EU membership arguably is an opportunity for UK businesses as it allows them to operate in a single market. The ability for members to trade without restrictions or tariffs is a significant benefit to business, with imports and exports being made easier and sometimes cheaper. In addition, the EU is Britain`s biggest trading partner with it being worth more than £400bn a year. The possibility such benefits could be taken away has probed business to come out and speak on a possible EU exit. A key example of this is the European aerospace and defence giant Airbus. Paul Kahn, president of Airbus UK has revealed the company would reconsider investment in the UK in the event of Britain leaving the European Union. Kahn said Britain must compete for international investment and "The best way to guarantee this is by remaining part of the EU”. The disadvantages of Britain being alone has become clear, posing question such as could Britain negotiate a similar trade agreement, or would a move out of the EU ultimately lead to less favourable economic conditions for businesses in the UK than in other parts of Europe. The Confederation of British Industry has recently published that a UK exit from the EU would cause a "serious economic shock", which could potentially cost the country £100bn. If British economic success is effected, this could affect the appetite of potential investors which could...
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...together in order to attain the same objective, primarily economic growth. Or in the main case peace, that resulted in the formation of the EU post world war two. The European Union is an economic and political grouping of 27 member nations, which are located in Europe. It was first called the EEC that was founded in 1957, but now formally known as the EU which was fully established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force on 1st November 1993. The original objective of the EU was to create such single market, so that there was the free circulation of goods, capital, people and services within it. The integration of the economies was largely thanks to the introduction of the Euro in 1999. Every grouping for the countries can hold consequences both positive and negative. To analyse this in depth, we can use Austria who joined the EU in 1993, with the aim of gaining greater security for its borders by being able to rely on military support . Along with security, quotas would be removed by becoming a member of the EU which is only an added benefit considering the majority of EU’s trade is with EU members and as a result greater access to the prosperous markets of West Germany. By contrast Norway became the first nation to reject membership to the European union in 1994. This result came amid growing concern that membership to the EU would result in a decrease in farming subsidies that they currently receive from the Norwegian government therefore jeopardising the farming industry...
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...Should the UK remain in the EU? In the aftermath of the Second World War, Winston Churchill called for the creation of a "United States of Europe" to bind France and Germany together. In doing so, he made clear that Britain would be a supportive but independent partner of any such entity. He famously said: 'We are with Europe but not of it." In the end, Britain did join the European Economic Community but only in 1973, 15 years after the Treaty of Rome was signed. We joined the Social Chapter in 1997, eight years after it was adopted by other member states. And we never signed up to Economic and Monetary Union or the Schengen Agreement on common borders. However, it is not until now that the British public have been presented with the opportunity to have their say on the matter of our continued membership. Following the 2015 general election, the re-elected Prime Minister David Cameron reiterated a Conservative Party manifesto commitment to hold an 'in-out' referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union by the end of 2017 following renegotiations with EU leaders. This means that between now and the vote the public have to decide whether Europe benefits the country regarding immigration, trade, investment and the protection of Human Rights and peace. Firstly, with regards to the economic repercussions of leaving the EU, many supporters of the so called “Brexit” claim that Britain would have very little difficulty in negotiating some form of free trade agreement with...
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...Back in 1992, the UK Conservative government was forced to withdraw the Pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after they were unable to keep it above its agreed lower limit. However now comes the question of whether or not that was the correct reaction to Black Wednesday since 55% of UK’s exports are already going to Eurozone countries, European tourists can bring more spending power into the UK as mentioned in extract D and in a time of recession, strength seems to come in numbers. Hence the UK could benefit from an adoption of the Euro. The most controversial issue is that the European Central Bank (ECB) will take over monetary policy if the UK were to join the 17-countries strong zone. The problem with this is the ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ dilemma that would make British interest rates the same as the Eurozone, by increasing it to ensure a low inflation rate, which is a priority in the ECB. Arguably, in the UK, this is at the expense of promoting economic growth and spending since the Bank of England tolerates a higher rate of inflation of 2% with a margin of ¬¬+- 1% because their priority is to avoid a double-dip recession. The interest rates in interest would cause a decrease in the marginal propensity to consume as well as increase loan debts, shown in the diagram with an inward shift in AD, as consumption and investment falls. Although there is also a decrease in Imports, it is marginally smaller than consumption (that accounts for 65% of Aggregate Demand)...
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...FDA in Business Management European Business Assignment 1 of 2 'Should the European Union continue to enlarge?' Lecturer: Ralph Power Candidate number: 525030 Introduction During this assignment the main European Union (EU) institutions will be evaluated and how decisions made on new countries joining the EU. The implications of EU enlargement on UK businesses and related to the UK economy will identified from conducting research. The EU institutions There are three main institutions involved in the European Union, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the Commission. All these three institutions play a role in creating laws, adopting them into the EU and then implementing them into each member state and making sure that these are being adhered by. The European Parliament The parliament represents the EU citizens and is elected by these citizens. The European Parliament together with the Council, adopts or amends proposals on EU laws from the Commission. Parliament also supervises the work of the Commission and adopts the European Union's budget. Parliament also works closely with national parliaments of EU countries, which helps these member states to share their perspectives on how EU laws should be interpreted and work. The European Parliament is a defender of human rights and democracy in Europe and abroad. The Charter of Fundamental Rights in the European Union sets out the civil, political, economic and social...
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...location of sovereignty in the UK changed in recent years? Sovereignty is in essence ultimate and unchallengeable power. Parliamentary Sovereignty, which makes Parliament the supreme legal authority in the UK, is threatened by devolution. Devolution was the transfer of power to subnational governments, this changed the UK into a quasifederal state; central government does not make all domestic policies, this means that laws passed in Westminster do not apply across the entire territory of the UK. The shift of Westminster’s power has led to a raft of different legislation emanating from these new bodies. This is illustrated by the fact that in England students pay fees for University whereas Scotland decided to keep university fees completely free. The devolution of power has put a constraint on Parliamentary Sovereignty. However it can be argued that devolution preserves in principle the sovereignty of Parliament. The Westminster Parliament could continue to legislate for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland even on devolved matters; and it can, if it wishes, simply abolish the devolved bodies by a simple Act of Parliament, as it did with the Northern Ireland Parliament in 1972. Secondly, the UK's legal sovereignty is challenged by the EU. The membership of the EU, along with the introduction of the Human Rights Act 1998, has diminished the supremacy of Parliament. The legal basis for British Membership was provided by the European Communities Act 1972, the constitutional...
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...Primacy principle is central to understanding the unique nature of the European Union Legal Order”, there are a few things we must first understand as this statement actually asks us three questions. Firstly what is the “unique nature” of the European Union (EU) Legal Order? Second, what is the supremacy or primacy principle? And finally, how important is the supremacy or primacy principle in achieving the goals of the European Union Legal Order? In my answer I will not separate these issues out, but instead I will attempt to answer the question with these issues in mind. According to Hendrik Jan van Eikema Hommes “if a multiplicity of legal rules displays a juridical unity, we can speak of a legal order or a legal system.” The European Union represents a supranational legal order within the specific fields delegated to the institutions and the competence of the community. This supranational federation is a new political entity which works above the individual national governments which make up its membership. The European Union is considered unique in this respect due to the level of integration which raises the Union from being merely an international agreement to being a supranational entity. Martin Steinfield describes the EU is a “federal order of sovereign states that has to grapple with legal political and economic relations in the wider world”. He also argues that “mixity” is at the heart of the European Union since the union must balance the integrity of its own new legal...
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...Article Introduction: Causes, consequences and cures of union decline European Journal of Industrial Relations 17(2) 97–105 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: sagepub. co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0959680111400893 ejd.sagepub.com Alex Bryson NIESR and Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK Bernhard Ebbinghaus Universität Mannheim, Germany Jelle Visser Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands In 2000 the political leaders of the European Union declared that strong economic growth and advance towards a knowledge society, together with a high degree of social cohesion, would be the pre-eminent goals for the subsequent decade. A question never asked was what would happen, and what remedial action would be taken, should the conditions conducive to growth and the knowledge economy conflict with the political and institutional underpinnings of social cohesion. What if strong employment growth turned out to be founded on the destabilization of the standard employment contract, or if the advance towards a knowledge economy brought about a sharp rise in social inequality and polarization between skilled and unskilled workers and between those with and without stable jobs? Would trade unions be willing and able to counteract or attenuate such trends and bridge the differences between the new haves and have-nots? Or would they be marginalized, slowly but irreversibly, together with the stable employment relationships...
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...sovereignty in the UK changed in the recent years? Sovereignty is essential and there is nothing you can do to challenge it or take it away. In the UK sovereignty lies within parliament; Sovereignty was placed formally to parliament after the Bill of Rights Act in 1688 when the monarch’s powers were removed. Ultimate power lies in parliament due to the fact that the electorate vote for the members of Parliament in free, fair and regular elections. There are two types of sovereignty that exist, legal and political. Legal sovereignty is the principle that one body has the authority and right to change any law in anyway it wants to, legal sovereignty in the UK has been said to lie in Westminster Parliament. Political sovereignty is where power effectively and actively is used and implemented, in other words who holds political power and who has can influence it. For example, political sovereignty lies with the electorate at election time, but at other times lies with Parliament when debating legislation and constitutional statues. People argue that the EU undermines Parliament sovereignty because national sovereignty of the British ts citizens is the ability of the UK to decide matters for itself. Membership of the EU has meant there has been a loss of national sovereignty. There are now a lot of EU institutions which are also in power with the UK political institutions and sometimes a number of areas which the EU has had an impact on the independent decision making of UK Parliament...
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...of the UK leaving the EU claim that there would be little trouble negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU once it left, because the UK has a large trade deficit with the rest of the Union. If trade barriers between Britain and the remaining member-states were erected upon exit, the EU would lose more exports earnings from Britain than vice versa. At the same time, the UK would be freed from the burdens of EU regulation and hence able to boost trade with faster growing parts of the world, nations such as China, US and emerging markets that include India that are not part of Europe. This could be done by eliminating tariffs and signing trade agreements without the constraints of EU membership. Undermining this assertion is the belief that the UK is a big enough economy to be an effective trade negotiator in its own right. As a result it might be concluded that the UK would see little impact from leaving the EU except perhaps a minor reduction in trade while new arrangements were made. However, it would be ill judged to assume that the UK would be able to dictate terms with the EU simply because it is running a trade deficit. Primarily, the EU buys half of Britain's exports whereas the UK accounts for little over 10 per cent of exports from the rest of the EU, so the UK would be in a weak position to negotiate access on its terms. Furthermore, it could be argued that the UK's access to many non-EU markets comes as a result of its EU membership. On its own, the UK only accounts...
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...The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is an international treaty that drafted by the Council of Europe to promote human rights and fundamental freedom in Europe. The aimed of Council of Europe is to achieve a unity among its member and believed that one of the way to persuade this goal is the maintenance and the further realization of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom through this convention. The convention is inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 that was proclaimed by General Assembly of United Nation. The resulting is The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) signed on Rome on 4th November 1950. The implementation of this convention came to force three years later in 1953 and three subsequent institutions were entrusted with safeguarding its workings: The European Commission of Human Rights (1954) The European Court of Human Rights (1959) The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe(1). In the European Convention of Human Rights, there are 17 key articles relating to rights and freedoms in the convention outlined in section 1 Article 2-18, which include: • Right to life • Prohibition of torture or inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment • Prohibition of slavery and forced labour • Right to liberty and security • Right to a fair trial • No punishment without law • Right to respect for family and private life • Freedom of thought, conscience and religion • Freedom of expression • Freedom of assembly and association ...
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