Liverpool Law School Professor Michael Dougan appeared before the Treasury Select Committee this week to submit evidence in relation to the economics of the UK’s relationship with the EU.
Professor Dougan, a Professor of European Law, appeared alongside Andy Lebrecht, Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU 2008-12 and Chatham House Director, Robin Niblett.
Professor Dougan said: “I hope that my evidence highlighted a few important points for the benefit of the Committee.
“For example, the fact that the term “market access” means something radically different in the context of the Single Market than it does in the context of virtually every other trade relationship.
“When it comes to evaluating the true worth of our existing membership of the EU, as well as of any alternative trade arrangement we might secure if the UK were to withdraw from the EU, we need to have that point at the forefront of our minds.
“But all eyes will now be fixed on the renegotiation as it picks up pace: we will soon see what precisely the UK is demanding and what our EU partners are prepared to deliver.
“Some of the UK’s likely demands raise issues of real substance – particularly on the relationship between the Single Market and the Eurozone, or concerning the powers of national parliaments. But even those demands – when viewed within the context of the overall relationship between the UK and the EU – are of relatively limited importance.
“As the Government’s own ‘Balance of Competences Review’ has confirmed, the interweaving of economic, social, political and diplomatic interests between the UK and the rest of the EU is not only extraordinarily far-reaching but viewed as largely positive by the main stakeholders in virtually every sector of activity.
“The results of the renegotiation – whatever they prove to be – should be only one factor among many in our forthcoming national debate. ”
To watch the full committee hearing, please visit http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/1f09947f-3d8b-4d2f-a80f-91a6091ccfd1