FT.com - Business must back a reforming Europe - by Martin Sorrell and Mike Rake

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Business must back a reforming Europeby Martin Sorrell and Mike Rake

A year ago the pro-European movement was at its lowest ebb. The European Union's constitutional treaty was voted down in France on May 29 by 55 per cent to 45 per cent. Three days later the people of the Netherlands followed suit. This was particularly galling for pro-Europeans as these two countries were founding members, signing the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The pro-European cause in the UK, which had been mobilising its resources for a potential referendum, was left to reflect on these momentous results. Certainly the results in the referendums on the continent were a blow to the British government's European policy. At the time the prospect of signing up to anything that involved European co-operation seemed remote. If a week is a long time in politics, as Harold Wilson, UK prime minister in the 1960s and 1970s, once famously remarked, a year is an eternity in the politics of Europe. In some ways, the reverse of the doom and gloom scenario has occurred. The UK, buoyed by its presidency of the EU last year, has been at the forefront of arguing for liberalising measures (the services directive) and an enlarged Union (the proposed accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007). Furthermore, the pro-European movement has rallied and re-mobilised. We have established a coalition of business leaders with a positive vision of the EU. The aim of our new group, Business for New Europe, is both to highlight the benefits of the UK's membership of the EU and to articulate a positive case for economic reform. Too often Europe's detractors use economic reform as a smokescreen to point to the faults of the Union. All the business leaders involved with Business for New Europe, though they may have real concerns over the draft constitution, share a common positive vision of the EU.