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[maxk] 02/1/2021 19:09

Outside the EU, British businesses can have more influence in Brussels than ever

The UK is outside the single market, but the EU's lobbying culture means savvy companies won't lose out


MATTHEW LYNN
1 January 2021 • 7:00pm
Matthew Lynn





We will be frozen out of decision-making. We will be rule-takers. And our companies will have no influence over our biggest market.

From Monday, the UK will have to start adjusting to life outside the European Union, and as it does so many of its most successful businesses will be regretting that they no longer have any input into the rules of the single market even though they will have to abide by them when selling into the rest of the continent.

But hold on. Maybe they shouldn’t worry. In truth, you don’t have to be a member to influence decision-making in Brussels. Not convinced? Just look at China. Or Japan, Russia or the US.

Brussels is the most intensely lobbied political centre in the world, and more easily shaped by commercial interests than any other legislative power. Paradoxically British business may find it can have more influence over European rules outside the EU than it ever could when we were a member. All it has to do is get out its chequebook and learn the rules of the game.

After four long, sometimes exhausting years, when everyone gets back to the office next week the UK will finally have severed its ties with the EU. We have a trade agreement but the EU’s rules will no longer be our rules, and nor will our companies automatically be allowed to sell their products across the single market.

From chemicals to pharmaceuticals, food, aerospace and automobiles, laws and product standards will be laid down in Brussels, and British companies will have to follow them, or else export elsewhere. British officials will no longer be able to fight the corner for the country’s businesses. Many will no doubt feel powerless.

And yet, there is a twist. It is wrong to simply assume that you have to belong to the EU to shape its policies. Take China for example. Plenty has already been written about its growing influence in Europe. It is building telecoms networks, integrating countries into its “Belt and Road” transport network, taking stakes in a range of important companies, and only this week agreed a huge new investment pact with the EU that, controversially, will give it even more access to Europe despite its terrible record on human rights and labour standards.

Last time I checked, however, China wasn’t a member of the EU. Neither, come to think of it, is Russia, which somehow manages to sell its gas unchecked across the continent, or Japan, which sells its cars in vast numbers, or South Korea, which dominates the mobile industry, or, of course, the US, which dominates the technology sector. None of them belong to the single market. But somehow or other the rules seem to work fine for them.

The reason is simple. Lobbyists and financial muscle count for a lot in Brussels, and often more than a few Foreign Office officials.

Transparency International calculates more than €1bn (£900m) a year is spent on lobbying in Brussels. To put that in perspective, it is a similar sum to the amount spent in Washington, usually known as “the swamp” for its addiction to money.

In truth, Brussels is more dominated by corporate special interests than any other political centre. It is the true home of pork barrel politics. Why? Because it is mainly run by a self-perpetuating bureaucracy, free of political scrutiny, not much in the way of electoral accountability, and with a largely docile press corps.

A revolving door between the Commission and the main lobbying firms ensures money usually gets its way. Make the right rules in office, and a string of lucrative “consulting” gigs will be waiting for you.

The game won’t be hard for British companies to master. There are really only three tricks you need to learn. First, hire the right insiders. One or two former commissioners and a handful of their officials on your team will make sure the right doors are opened and you can get the meetings with the people who matter.

Next, set up a neutral-sounding think tank to pump out the right kind of research. Papers that emphasise solidarity and shared European values, with some nods towards climate change, and which also happen, conveniently enough, to help out your particularly commercial interests. The Institute for European Competitiveness or some such should do the job nicely.

Finally, quietly pay all the bills for a “European trade association” that always comes up with recommendations that work for you. There are dozens to choose from, and most of them can be relied on to represent whoever happens to be paying the bills.

It takes a little getting used to. Westminster lobbying is so tame by comparison that initially companies may be surprised by how much they can get away with.

And, sure, it is expensive. There will be a lot of lunches to pay for, and a lot of “consultants” on fat contracts. But it will work.

Rules can be shaped for your industry and troublesome start-ups that might compete with you squashed.

The EU’s single market is not as important as it is sometimes cracked up to be. Its share of overall British exports has been falling for two decades and is still going down, while new trade blocs in Asia, Africa and South America are overtaking it in size and wealth.

But it is still a significant market, and one that most companies will want to sell into. We won’t have government officials representing us in Brussels anymore. Lobbyists will have to do the job instead. And yet, with the right budgets, paradoxically British businesses can have more influence over EU rules now that we are out than when we were in.

They just have to learn the rules of the game - and fast.

[jl5006] 02/1/2021 18:53

K 38
How long have you had a holding in LLOY.
U never refer to your losses.
Mine exceed 33%

[jl5006] 02/1/2021 18:51

Scruff
Fanheads or fans?
Dont see many bothering in the future
FA PC BLM mad - why go any where near -
FA just go a home game at Millwall - never have never will - those that never knew or understood - yet make the rules - that will never do.
Football was a game - now a game of silly ppl twisting any rule they think fit - for betterment - never.
Never put a prat in charge of building a tower block bcos he/she has a piece of papre.
Only experience matters - not colour not race not gender - yet all of those criteria are subject to Q.
Society can readily destroy its ethics - almost done - but just a tad left. Once gone forever forgotten.
take care maniacs of destruction

[minerve 2] 02/1/2021 18:31

"We need people that can make nails, bash metal into sheets & tan leather....good honest pursuits."

Start fires?
Skin rabbits?

[scruff1] 02/1/2021 18:30

Thats if we get a second half to the season. The plonkers at Spurs and West Ham not helping the cause. But yes promises to be interesting. Lots of teams in the mix. Should stop the 'fans' calling for Ollie's head for a couple of games. PLeased for Gerard at Rangers - doing really well

[minerve 2] 02/1/2021 18:30

Maybe diku that's because we were still trading on EU terms as of only two days ago!

🙄

[diku] 02/1/2021 18:16

Anybody noticed any difference to supplies...fruit and veg still plenty abound...all the scaremongering before the Brexit vote and after...30% property crash never happened...

[minerve 2] 02/1/2021 18:12

That's OK scruff. :)

Good result for Man U. Now up with LFC on points. Should make for an interesting second-half of the season.

[scruff1] 02/1/2021 18:10

Ok. Wasnt aware

[minerve 2] 02/1/2021 18:06

scruff1

Because that is what the British government were promoting with the Turin scheme. The opportunity to study there. Truth is, students had that opportunity already under Erasmus. Erasmus is NOT an exclusive EU scheme. You will not here that from the curent cronies in charge though.

[grahamite2] 02/1/2021 18:04

He was only 52, Minerve! Better watch yourself!

[scruff1] 02/1/2021 18:02

Minnie
Why do you mention the US and Australia?

[minerve 2] 02/1/2021 18:02

This is not anti-EU, this is anti-european, shame on Brexiteers, old gammons who can't wait to die stealing the future of their grandchildren.

[minerve 2] 02/1/2021 18:00

A spiteful little gesture by those currently running Little Britain. If there is one thing the last 4 1/2 years have shown it is that the British desperately need more citizens with first hand experience of life in neighbouring countries. The first post-Johnson government will surely rejoin Erasmus. Until then, it is sincerely to be hoped that other sources of support will be found.

[minerve 2] 02/1/2021 17:59

The UK already struggles to be culturally and linguistically outward looking, and that's before its departure from the Erasmus programme. It makes me weep to see the country cut off from the fantastic opportunities that the programme provides to the ordinary people. Shame on the English nationalists and their ideological backers who have brought the country down so low.

[minerve 2] 02/1/2021 17:58

Ref Erasmus:

This is unforgivable. There is no other word for it.. Bears all the hallmarks of a cult.

[xxxxxy] 02/1/2021 17:58

LifelogicPosted January 2, 2021 at 7:16 am | Permalink37,000 excess winter deaths so far this year (entirely normal as we are about half way into the winter excess period). But this year 25,500 0f these now labelled as covid deaths. Other causes, cancer, heart disease, circulatory, cerebrovascular, dementia, influenza all magically in large decline.How stupid does the government and NHS/ONS think we are?