Europe: up close and personal

Mar 18 2009 by Andrew Hebden, The Journal

EARLIER this month, a group of 25 business people from the North East travelled to Brussels to get a better understanding of the European political system as part of the CBI’s Future Leaders project. Andrew Hebden joined them.

EVERYONE has their views of the European Parliament and its sister institutions in Brussels and, bar the odd MEP, they’re usually not all that positive.

Brussels has long been a target of much of the British press which delights in reporting its anachronistic mechanisms and its oddball legislation.

More seriously, though, it is frequently the source of frustration for many businesses who find that many of the laws that dictate their everyday practices have their origins in a Brussels committee room. Rather than simply getting frustrated by the quirks of Europe, however, the CBI seeks to play a more positive role by lobbying on behalf of British business at every stage of the process. Sometimes, they succeed in changing the shape of legislation so that it will cause fewer headaches for companies back home.

At other times, they can at least flag up to UK firms the latest red tape that is heading in their direction.

Be it a longstanding major issue such as the UK opt-out from parts of the Working Time directive or specific legislation relating to one particular industry, what is not in doubt is the significance of the European Parliament.

The delegation from the CBI North East’s Future Leaders programme was suitably sceptical about the virtues of the whole European project when they arrived in Brussels. So did two days of meetings with MEPs, officials and lobbyists make them think again?

Here, nine of the party share their views.

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