Firms face a challenge. They produce superb products, offer world-class services and benefit from being able to sell to a European market of 500 million customers. But they are often encumbered by problematic, poorly-understood and burdensome European rules. The impact is clear: fewer inventions are patented, fewer sales are made, fewer goods are produced and fewer jobs are created. The burden also falls heaviest on small and medium-sized firms who make up the vast majority of businesses.
This would be bad enough if the world was standing still – but it isn't. The global economy is being re-shaped at breakneck speed. In the past decades, political systems have changed, new players have emerged on the markets, as well as new materials, new technologies and workers who are better skilled than ever. To compete in this fast-changing economy requires regulation that promotes growth, better access to markets and the availability of new sources of energy.
When US companies can get new products licensed and to market in days, it should not take weeks or months in Europe. When small and medium-sized enterprises are crucial to creating new jobs, it doesn't make sense for the EU to extract £300 million from UK businesses alone to implement new data protection rules.
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Is your work tangled up in EU red tape? Or do you think that complaints about legislation are just scaremongering? Share your thoughts about the EU using the comments section below.
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