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Ahead of the announcement of the budget on Wednesday, Senior Vice Chair of European Movement UK, Molly Scott Cato, asks if the elephant in the room, the UK's departure from the EU, will be mentioned in this huge political moment. Molly is also The Green Party of England and Wales' spokesperson on the economy.

How can the UK economy compete against the low costs of China, the vast subsidies of America’s inflation reduction act and the frictionless borders of the EU? How will we hold our own as the global economy goes through its greatest transformation in two centuries, in response to the climate crisis? We are going to be told that Reeves’s first budget is ‘a budget for growth’, but how is the Chancellor of a small market outside the main trade blocs of the world going to compete and achieve that growth?

[Image: Shutterstock.]

The biggest challenge will be the economies of the EU that have the support of a strong institutional and policy framework. Back in 2019, when Margarete Vestager was answering questions about her vision if she were confirmed as competition commissioner, she characterised the European trading bloc, by contrast to those of China and the US:

‘So my pledge is not to make Europe more like China, or more like America. My pledge is to help make Europe more like herself: to build on our own strengths and values, so our society is both strong and fair – and that for all Europeans.’

This has been the EU’s vision over the past five years: to be a major global player that maintains commitment to social and environmental standards and protects them against unfair competition from other powerful global trading blocs. She also promised a European Green Deal in her first 100 days, a plan to make Europe a carbon-neutral continent by 2050 and achieve a slew of other environmental ambitions through legislation and considerable public finance.

But Vestager was also clear that the EU’s higher standards must not allow the other global trading blocs to undercut European businesses. One of her last actions as competition commissioner was to announce new, higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports, on the basis that they had benefited from unfair subsidies. The EU has also protected its pro-climate producers through the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a tariff imposed on imports into the EU that do not meet the bloc’s own stringent climate requirements.

The US has also invested massively in the future green economy via its Inflation Reduction Act, which has subsidised clean-tech sectors including battery, solar panel, and wind turbine production to the tune of a vast $369bn. Some EU politicians have felt threatened by subsidies on a scale on the backing of the US dollar can achieve, but the bloc can at least operate on something approaching the same scale. What about the UK?

The decision by a succession of Conservative governments to turn the net-zero debate into a culture war has damaged our potential to compete in these new sectors as has the reluctance to invest in green technologies, as demonstrated by the collapse of the start-up company British volt and the demise of its plan EV battery plant in Northumberland. The boss of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has been vocal about the threats to the future of the UK car industry unless they receive subsidies similar to those on offer in the US, the EU and China.

The harsh reality of what this means for the UK economy, vulnerable now we are outside these three powerful blocs, was made clear this week by Dave Ricks, CEO of global pharma giant Eli Lilly. Speaking on the Today programme he made his position blatantly clear: ‘I think the difference with the UK is, on your own, separate from Europe, it’s a relatively small market for most multinationals – and certainly Americans. So something needs to be quite different to make it interesting.’ By interesting he means less tightly regulated.

The EU is a large and powerful enough market to defend its high social and environmental standards; outside the EU, the UK is not.

But this risk to EU standards through the back door was anticipated by the EU’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, which is why he included what he titled the Level Playing Field in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. This protects the EU single market against UK attempts to reduce environmental standards or offer favourable conditions to encourage inward investment that would undercut the EU.

So, while we are out, we are still protected by EU standards via the TCA. If Labour are tempted to offer ‘interesting’ tidbits to Ricks and other corporate CEOs, we could face the enforcement procedures included in the TCA including suspensions of other favourable trading terms to access the EU single market.

If we seem to be caught between a rock and a hard place, I can suggest an obvious way out: becoming again part of the single market, and not just for trading purposes.

Rejoining the EU's political institutions, and taking our rightful place in designing the global bloc that puts its values of environmental protection and social standards at its heart, offers the best future for the UK to flourish in the green economy that is springing to life all around us.

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On Tuesday 22nd October, the new All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Europe was officially established, marking a pivotal step in strengthening parliamentary engagement on Europe and enhancing the UK's dialogue with its continental neighbours.  

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP (Labour) and Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Conservative) were elected as Co-Chairs, with Wera Hobhouse MP (Liberal Democrat) and Ellie Chowns MP (Green) serving as Vice Chairs. European Movement UK is proud to support the APPG's work and will provide the secretariat. 

The APPG is set to become a vital cross-party platform, bringing together MPs and Peers to foster informed debate on the UK's relationship with Europe, including the EU and its Member States.  

Through constructive dialogue and expert input, the APPG will develop pragmatic recommendations aimed at strengthening cooperation in key areas of mutual interest, ensuring these are heard and considered within Parliament. 

At a time when the UK Government has signalled a ‘reset’ in its relations with the EU and with the dissolution of the European Scrutiny Committee, the APPG can serve as a crucial forum for evaluating policies as they evolve. Its role will be to advocate for a forward-looking, practical approach to the UK's partnership with Europe, promoting positive and solution-oriented discussions. 

Meeting approximately six times a year, the APPG will focus on a wide range of themes central to UK-EU cooperation, such as foreign and defence policy, security, youth mobility, the creative industries and trade. Each session will feature expert witnesses, with short reports produced afterward to inform parliamentary discussions. 

One of the group’s key objectives is to strengthen connections between UK parliamentarians and their European counterparts, including embassies and political representatives, fostering deeper dialogue and mutual understanding. By building these relationships, the APPG aims to create a robust foundation for long-term collaboration. 

During this Parliament, the review of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement will be a significant focus, alongside crucial decisions on data adequacy, energy cooperation, and fisheries. The APPG can support ensuring these agreements are effectively negotiated and maintained, which will be essential for fostering a smooth and mutually beneficial partnership moving forward. 

Working closely with European Movement UK, the APPG is committed to engaging with a broad range of stakeholders, including business leaders, industry representatives, civil society groups, NGOs and others. By amplifying these voices in Parliament, the group aims to strengthen the UK-EU relationship in ways that better serve the interests of citizens on both sides of the Channel. 

[Header image: Shutterstock.]

Richmond-on-Thames will host an event entitled “Celebrating France and Germany” to mark the re-affirmation of its twinning agreement with Konstanz in Germany and Fontainebleau in France.

Events will be organised over the weekend of 6^th to 8^th June 2025 by societies, clubs and other organisations together with their peers in the twinned cities. 

For further details click here.

Promising Signals for UK Musicians and Artists Touring in EU

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has responded to our Face The Music campaign, signalling a potential shift in policy regarding post-Brexit touring issues for UK artists in the EU.

The Face The Music campaign is calling for:

• Negotiated and reciprocal visa waiver agreements to ease travel for UK musicians
• A review of the restrictions on how many days artists and support workers can work in the EU within a 180-day period.

In a letter to the movement, responding to the campaign, DCMS officials stated:

"We are keen to collaborate with the EU to explore ways to improve touring conditions for artists... to address key issues for our brilliant musicians and artists in areas such as visa or the movement of goods."

The response comes after sustained pressure from the Face The Music campaign, which has garnered widespread support from the UK's creative community.

Key points from the DCMS response include:

• A focus on resetting and strengthening relationships with European partners
• Consideration of various policy options to support the creative industries, arts, and heritage sectors
• Commitment to meeting government pledges for these sectors

Richard Kilpatrick, Campaign Manager at European Movement UK, commented:

"While we're cautiously optimistic, it's clear that the narrative is changing. The new Government is listening, and we have an opportunity to make real progress on this critical issue."

Now, we are urging supporters to maintain pressure on the Government by writing to their MPs, emphasising the importance of taking meaningful action to support the UK's renowned creative sector.

Face The Music continues to advocate for solutions to post-Brexit challenges facing UK artists touring in the EU, including visa restrictions and goods movement issues.

See the full response from the DCMS below:

[Header image: Shutterstock.]

Martin McKee, CBE, is professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was president of the British Medical Association (BMA) from 2022-23.

Among the stranger features of the Soviet Union were the photographs from which individuals, such as Trotsky, were airbrushed out. They, and their acts, were erased from history. Everyone knew they had existed. They just didn’t speak openly about them.

These images came to mind recently when I was reading the latest of many reports on the problems facing Britain. Lord Darzi, the eminent surgeon, has compiled a detailed assessment of the parlous state of the NHS and how what had been, only 12 years ago, among the best-performing health systems in the world, had got into this state.

His list of reasons held no surprises. More than a decade of austerity. The catastrophic Lansley reforms of 2012. A failure to engage with staff and patients. And, of course, the pandemic, now cited along with the war in Ukraine, as an excuse for everything that doesn’t work in Britain, even though the United Kingdom is unique among rich countries in failing to recover. But where was Brexit? Not a single mention. Airbrushed out of history.

I’ve been researching health systems across the world for 35 years. So, when David Cameron called the referendum, while I expected the Leave campaign to exploit fears about free movement of people and the vague concept of sovereignty, I never imagined that they would use the NHS as an issue. A service that had long depended on health workers from abroad, who diagnosed patients using imported technology and medicines, was always going to be vulnerable to anything that erected barriers to these flows.

When we looked into the details, as we did in a series of articles in The Lancet, we could see that the problems were even worse than we had first thought. There were the short half-life radioisotopes that we got from The Netherlands, the cooperation on diseases so rare that there may only be under 100 patients across the EU, and our involvement in the research that had driven so much progress in areas such as cancer. Why would anyone want to give all that up?

We didn’t expect the blatant dishonesty of those behind the Leave campaign. As an American colleague said, “the bus lied”.  The NHS would never get the promised £350 million a week.

We did try to counter this nonsense. I joined Mike Galsworthy in creating Healthier in the EU to make the case for Remain. We organised letters from leading health professionals, which was easy as virtually none supported Leave. We explained the problems to those who would listen. But we could never compete with the huge sums available to the Leave campaign or the media attention they attracted. Now, eight years after the referendum, we can see what has happened.

We can start with the money. As the Chancellor struggles to fill the £22 billion “black hole” she has inherited, we should recall that virtually every economic analysis suggests that Brexit has cost the UK taxpayer over £30 billion per year, money that could make a sizeable dent in the massive backlog of underinvestment. Lord Darzi doesn’t just describe how we lag far behind other similar countries in technology like scanners. He reports how the roof had collapsed just before he visited one health facility.

The goal of any health system should be to get the right mix of staff in the right place, with the right tools, at the right time, to help the patient along their journey. As the latest in a series of reports by the Nuffield Trust reveals, Brexit makes all of this more difficult.

As expected, there was a dramatic reduction in health workers coming from the EU, with particular shortages in some specialised areas such as anaesthesia and cardiac surgery. Many of the resulting shortages have been alleviated by recruiting from other parts of the world. This has worked so far, but the decision by the last government to restrict the ability of family members to join those recruited is likely to have severe consequences, especially in social care

Innovative medicines are transforming many aspects of health care. Boris Johnson made much of the UK’s rapid approval of Covid vaccines, overlooking how this was achieved using EU rules. Now we can see what happens when we go it on our own. In the year to December 2023, Great Britain approved four drugs more quickly than the EU, but approval of another 56 was slower, and 8 approved in the EU had still not been approved at all in Great Britain by March 2024.

Meanwhile, patients with long-term conditions need regular supplies of existing medicines but, increasingly, have faced shortages. While these problems are not unique to the UK, as the Nuffield Trust reports, Brexit makes it more difficult to resolve them.

Artificial intelligence is another rapidly advancing area that has considerable potential to enhance medical technology. Yet there is a real risk that Great Britain will be excluded from some of these developments if it fails to align with the EU’s changing regulatory regime.

Fortunately, there are a few areas where our worst fears were not confirmed. A fix has been developed for the supply of radioisotopes. Some supply chain problems have not yet materialized because of the failure to “get Brexit done” as the introduction of incoming border checks slips ever further into the future. And the UK has reached a deal to participate in health research, albeit on far worse terms than before.

Lord Darzi paints a picture of an NHS in which some parts are in “an awful state”.  Yet it can be fixed, but only by addressing why it got into this situation. This means that politicians need to be honest with a population that now overwhelmingly accepts that Brexit was a mistake.

For more on this, see our breakdown of 10 ways that Brexit has been a disaster for our NHS and our video, Brexit Dead Ringer.

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Sir Nick Harvey, CEO of European Movement UK, outlines the European Movement's view of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's first meeting with European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday (October 2nd) for their first bilateral.  

The European Movement welcomes the outcome of the Prime Minister's visit to Brussels. It was clear throughout that there is now a new, positive tone in EU-UK relations and a platform for much closer cooperation.  

It is especially reassuring that there will now be regular summits. We are encouraged that the Prime Minister and the European Commission President resolved to be ambitious in strengthening cooperation, based on the UK and the EU having a unique relationship and shared values.  

Their joint commitment to the ECHR is also to be welcomed. It has been a news story this week following the video posted by Tory leadership candidate, Robert Jenrick, in which the MP threatens to leave the ECHR and the robust response by European Movement Vice President, Dominic Grieve. 

Reaffirming a shared commitment to the ECHR was clearly right and proper. Furthermore, given the upheaval in the Middle East and the continuing illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was inevitable - and appropriate - that these short initial meetings in Brussels would focus primarily on defence and security.

That said, we at European Movement UK would argue forcefully that defence and security - and the geopolitical interests that the EU and the UK share - are ultimately inseparable from economic and trade issues. A closer trading relationship, with the UK in time returning to the customs union and the single market and ultimately to our rightful place around the EU table, would make the UK - but also the EU - more prosperous and stronger. 

The closer the relationship between the EU and the UK is, the more economically self-reliant and able to stand up to authoritarian states we will both be. 

What is more, the Prime Minister and President von der Leyen rightly emphasised our shared values. If we want those shared values to flourish and to underpin ever closer cooperation, it is crucial that we repair the cultural exchanges and links that have been damaged by Brexit. That means - as a start - the UK returning to Erasmus + so that our young people from all backgrounds can experience life in the rest of Europe and we can once again welcome Europeans to the UK. These exchanges build understanding, widen horizons and create lasting ties.  

We also urge the government to negotiate a wider youth mobility agreement with the EU, pending the day when we can take the step of restoring free movement for everyone. 

We believe that the Prime Minister's visit to Brussels has demonstrated that there is now genuine goodwill between the UK government and the EU institutions.  

We hope and demand that both sides nurture the seeds sown and bring the EU and the UK closer together, so that we can start to repair the damage done by (former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's) Brexit. 

(Image: Shutterstock)

With conference season coming to an end, we thought it was high time to tell you all about European Movement UK’s activities over the last few weeks. We were at most of the major UK conferences, minus the Conservative conference and the (at time of writing) yet-to-happen Plaid Cymru Conference.

Following the recent General Election, it’s safe to say that this year’s party conferences had plenty of interesting debates, motions, policies, stories and fringe events.

But what about Europe? How often, and it what ways, did that come up at conferences? And what were European Movement UK and European Movement in Scotland (EMiS) doing to spread the pro-European message?

Here are the answers to those questions.

Labour Party Conference

At the celebratory, if rather rainy, conference of the new government, we spent our time networking with Labour contacts, from senior Ministers to ordinary party members from across the country. We also attended - and spoke up at - a dozen or more fringe meetings addressed by impressive panels of eminent politicians and experts.

The subjects of the fringe meetings that we hurried to under the downpours of rain included trade, climate change, defence, industrial strategy, health and the cultural sector. The curse of Brexit was a theme running through all of them – it has left few areas of our national life undamaged.

So even if the Prime Minister and other leading Labour figures preferred to avoid the subject in the main conference arena, the UK’s relationship with the EU was being discussed just about everywhere else.

EU Ambassador to the UK Pedro Serrano struck a very positive tone at the reception he hosted, flanked by Mr Thomas-Symonds and the Europe Minister Stephen Doughty, both of whom had warm words of their own. Nobody could be left in any doubt: trust is beginning to be re-established.

However, it is results that count. Everyone, from the EU delegation and experts on panels to a plethora of speakers from the floor, called for the government to negotiate a youth mobility deal with the EU.

Encouragingly, this call was firmly backed by Stella Creasy, Chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, who was a prominent and positive presence at the conference.

Scottish National Party (SNP) Conference

EMiS attended the SNP National Conference in Edinburgh from August 30^th to September 1^st. Against a challenging post-election landscape for the party, members came to together to plan the way forward for the party.

EMiS hosted an exhibition stall at the conference, engaging members in conversations on how the party can do more to champion Scotland's place in Europe, a subject which has always been core to the SNP's international affairs, especially following Brexit.

We held talk with various senior politicians, including Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, hearing the party leadership's positions on Europe and discussing the necessary steps to build an ever-closer relationship with the EU.

Importantly, we also left the SNP conference with many new EMiS members, ready to join us in the campaign to undo the damage of a botched Brexit and, in time, get the UK back into the EU once again.

[Credit: European Movement in Scotland]

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On Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer will be having his first bilateral meeting with President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.  

This is a huge moment for the development of UK-EU relations and will dictate the trajectory of ‘project reset’ that the new UK government is looking to deliver. 

One area where we are likely to see progress and alignment being discussed is youth mobility. As reported by The Times, we know the EU is keen to open discussions with the UK about an agreement on youth mobility. 

Now, two days ahead of Keir Starmer’s first proper meet with von der Leyen, The Guardian is reporting that “British universities are urging the government to find a way to restart the flow of EU students to Britain after Brexit, including a possible return to the Erasmus student exchange programme.” 

“We really, really regret the fact that we have lost a flow of really good European students into the UK,” said Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, an advocacy organisation for universities in the United Kingdom. 

European Movement UK believes it is promising to see the media giving attention to the matter of a new UK-EU youth mobility deal, one which could seriously boost the UK economy, and provide life-changing opportunities for young people. 

“EU data for 2020 shows that 17,795 students came to the UK in 2018/2019, almost double the number of British students, 9,908, that went to the EU,” reports The Guardian.  

“The previous year, 18,839 EU citizens came to British universities compared with 9,540 going to the EU.” 

European Movement UK has been urging the UK government to reach a post-Brexit deal with the EU on youth mobility for some time, and for this deal to be negotiated as quickly as possible.  

Last month, the European Movement welcomed the possibility of a new round of negotiations between the UK and the EU on a new youth mobility scheme. 

Dr Mike Galsworthy, Chair of European Movement UK, said: 

“A mutual youth mobility scheme is such an obvious good for all concerned that a YouGov poll in April found even Leave voters were 53% in favour vs 27% against.  

“The public support for such youth opportunities is absolutely overwhelming and I am baffled as to why the government seem so heavy-hearted and timorous about such a win-win.  

“We’re a European country - it’s exciting - let’s embrace it.” 

European Movement UK and Young European Movement UK are calling on the UK government to open negotiations to re-enter the Erasmus+ programme, and for opposition political parties to pledge their support. 

Sign the petition now to build the pressure on this vital issue. 

(Header image: Shutterstock)