The European Movement is proudly led by the grassroots. Therefore, following the election, we surveyed our membership and activists about what our priorities should be going forward.

The results revealed three central themes:

• Ensuring that European values and standards are maintained
• Pursuing a close relationship with Europe 
• Highlighting the impact of Brexit and holding the government to account.  

The European Movement remains committed to building an organization for the future which is worthy of our 70 year history. We will be announcing our next steps in greater detail at the Grassroots for Europe Conference tomorrow and following through over the weeks ahead. 

Our central objective is and always has been to promote a close relationship with our European partners. We recognize, of course, that the Government has a mandate to implement Brexit, but we continue to believe the policy to be a profound national mistake. Therefore, we will exercise our democratic right to campaign, at both national and local levels, for the UK to retain strong ties with the European Union and its member states. 

In keeping with the results of the survey, we will fight for as close a relationship with the EU as possible and to ensure that European values are upheld in law. We will show why we believe that a policy of alignment of rights and standards with the rest of Europe would offer better economic and social prospects to the British people. 

We will, for example, support full British participation in European programmes which:

- Address the global climate emergency;

- Support economic and social development in low income countries;

- Promote exchanges between European universities;

Brexit is clearly now going to happen, but the European Movement will seek to expose its consequences – and hold to account those responsible. 

Please join us as we take this next step. 

Kind Regards, 

Stephen Dorrell

Chair, European Movement UK