Written evidence submitted by the Northern Ireland Office for the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s inquiry into Northern Ireland and the EU Referendum (EUN0016)
1. The Government believes that by remaining in a reformed EU, the United Kingdom will be better off, stronger and safer.
2. Since the May 2015 election, the Government has pursued an agenda of reform and renegotiation to deliver change in our relationship with the European Union. Following months of negotiations, the Government secured a new settlement which gives the UK a special status within the EU, as well as setting the EU as a whole on the path of long-term reform.
3. The UK’s rights as a country within the Single Market, but outside the Eurozone, have been protected to keep our economy and financial system secure and protect UK businesses from unfair discrimination. Our new settlement confirms that the regulatory burden on businesses, particularly small businesses, will be reduced and there will be a new focus on extending the Single Market to bring down the remaining barriers to trade within the EU.
4. We have secured agreement that the Treaties will be changed in the future so that the UK is carved out of ‘ever-closer union’ and have established a mechanism for decision-making to return from Brussels to the UK. We have also secured new powers to tackle the abuse of free movement and reduce the unnatural draw of our benefits system, to meet our aim of reducing immigration, by creating fairer rules, while protecting our open economy.
5. This new settlement resets the balance in our relationship with the EU. It reinforces the clear economic and security benefits of EU membership, while making clear that we cannot be required to take part in any further political integration. Northern Ireland is stronger, safer and better off as part of a United Kingdom that remains in a reformed European Union.
Better off
6. We are better off because, with turbulence in the global economy, membership of the EU gives businesses throughout the UK access to the free trade Single Market and dozens of trade deals throughout the world.
7. The EU remains our single most important trading partner. The Single Market now gives UK businesses and consumers tariff-free access to the world’s largest trading bloc with 500 million people and 26 million companies generating almost £11 trillion in economic activity, and £229 billion of UK exports go to the EU. Crucially it also removes other EU countries’ regulatory barriers to our businesses. The UK’s membership is delivering economic security in both allowing us to reap the benefits of the Single Market, but also to be instrumental in fashioning it. The Single Market was in large part a British vision and a British creation.
8. As a trading country, the UK does not face an artificial choice between Europe and the rest of the world: our ambition is to maximise trade with both. Despite the rapid growth of developing economies, it is the EU that remains our single most important trading partner.
Since 1992, the UK’s bilateral goods trade with other EU Member States has roughly trebled in nominal terms and exporting to the EU is particularly important for smaller firms.
9. At the same time, the UK benefits from the EU’s greater economic leverage, which has allowed it to negotiate advantageous Free Trade Agreements with more than 50 other countries. This allows us to take advantage of growth opportunities around the world. Concluding all the trade deals already underway could ultimately be worth in total more than £20 billion a year to UK GDP. Once these deals are completed around three-quarters of UK exports to non-EU countries would be covered by EU-negotiated Free Trade Agreements. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) alone could add £10 billion to UK GDP. The EU is already the largest trading partner of 59 countries representing more than half of the world economy, around twice that of the US, which is the largest trading partner of 24 countries.
Safer
10. We are safer in the EU because our membership enhances our ability to co-operate with other Member States to combat crime and terrorism and keep our country safe. In the EU, the UK is united with our neighbours in stopping acts of aggression by our enemies and working to find solutions to new conflicts.
11. We have protected our ability to choose when to co-operate on Justice and Home Affairs issues, retaining sovereignty over hundreds of powers for the UK. However, cooperation between law enforcement authorities across Europe is sometimes vital given the cross- border nature of security threats such as serious and organised crime, terrorism and extremism. A strong EU framework provides for practical joint working and effective, real- time data sharing, helping us to protect our citizens.
12. For example, the European Arrest Warrant makes it easier to extradite suspects back to where they are wanted for crimes and bring suspects back to the UK to face justice for crimes committed here. It is because of the European Arrest Warrant that we have been able to remove 7,000 suspects out of the UK and bring 1,000 back to face justice.
13. Europol, the EU’s law enforcement co-operation agency, facilitates information exchange, and provides operational and technical support to tackle cybercrime, child pornography, drug and people trafficking across the EU. The UK uses Europol more than almost any other country, initiating 726 new cases in the last three months of 2015. In addition, the EU’s watch list system allows UK law enforcement agencies access to alerts on around 300,000 wanted or missing people, such as suspected terrorists, murderers and paedophiles.
Stronger
14. The UK is stronger in the EU because membership of the EU, like our membership of NATO and the UN, amplifies the UK’s power and influence on the world stage. At a time when we are faced with an increasing range of serious threats, cooperation at an international level is more important than ever. The EU has a wide range of tools at its disposal, including security, diplomatic, economic and humanitarian. Our influence in the EU therefore benefits
both the EU and the UK. At the same time, we can never be forced to participate in EU measures in this area that we do not agree with or that are not in our national interest.
15. Working with allies, the UK has driven EU activity in key areas, leveraging the power of 28 countries and amplifying the impact that we would have had on our own, for example, on
- a nuclear agreement with Iran
- Russian aggression in Ukraine
- sanctions on Syria
- fighting ebola; and
- action on climate change and energy security
16. The UK’s closest allies outside Europe – from Australia to New Zealand, the US to Canada – all want us to stay in the EU, because we are more secure when we are united.
Northern Ireland
17. The Government believes strongly that Northern Ireland is stronger, safer and better off as part of a United Kingdom that remains in the European Union.
Economy and trade
18. In the last five years over two fifths of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects in Northern Ireland have been funded by investment from the EU. Northern Ireland exports over £3.6bn worth of goods to the EU each year. Around 60 per cent of its total exports are destined for the EU – which is more than Northern Ireland exports to anywhere else in the world.
19. Since 1998, the value of Northern Ireland’s exports to the EU has increased by over 50% in real terms. Exports of food and livestock products more than trebled in real terms over the same period. There were 653,000 visitors to Northern Ireland from Europe in 2014, 65% of the total, and these visitors spent almost £140 million. Tourism provides nearly 75,000 jobs.
Security co-operation
20. Cooperation with Ireland has been vital to maintaining peace and overcoming security threats in Northern Ireland. The UK and Ireland will always co-operate closely against terrorism, but membership of the EU enhances our ability to co-operate with Member States to combat crime and terrorism and keep our country safe.
21. Membership of the EU allows Northern Ireland law enforcement agencies to benefit from use of the European Arrest Warrant and the EU watch-list. Through the EU we are also members of Europol, the EU organisation that helps EU countries to fight serious crime and terrorism. EU-wide action has made it possible to bring in measures to help cut off finances to terrorists and that will make it harder for them to get access to bomb-making materials and firearms.
22. As the British Director of Europol said: “if the UK is no longer a member of the EU, it wouldn’t have the same access to that well-regulated, well-developed capability, and I think,
therefore, that it would make it harder for Britain to fight terrorism and crime” (Newsnight, 8/2/16).
Border with Ireland
23. It is important to business and communities that the border remains fully open. Since the 1920s the UK and Ireland have operated a Common Travel Area, which allows for nationals of both countries to travel and live in each country without immigration controls.
24. In addition, both countries are part of the EU Customs Union, which means that there are no customs controls on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Without this, goods being exported across the border could be subject to various forms of customs controls and their liability to duty determined according to complex Rules of Origin.
25. The absence of cross-border restrictions has both encouraged cooperation and increased trade over the last twenty years. Overall, around 60 per cent of Northern Ireland’s exports go to the EU, with 37 per cent going to Ireland alone.
26. If the UK left the EU, these arrangements could be put at risk. Questions would also need to be answered about how the Common Travel Area, which covers the movement of people, would operate with the UK outside the EU, and Ireland inside.
Conclusion
27. The Government is clear that leaving the EU would threaten the economic and national security of all parts of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland. Proponents of a vote to leave are unable to offer certainty on critical issues, such as whether
● UK businesses would be able to access Europe’s free trade Single Market
● working people’s jobs would be safe; or
● how much prices would rise
28. The unique nature of our membership of the EU gives the UK a special status within the organisation: a status that no arrangement outside the EU could match. This is the best of both worlds – offering us key benefits for jobs and growth that we could not have outside the EU, but the freedom to choose not to take part in other activities, which are not in the UK’s interest. We have full voting rights, a full voice at the table and a full say over the rules of the Single Market, but remain outside EU activities where they do not suit us.
29. The Government’s fundamental aim is to offer security for working people at every stage of their lives. It is through doing so that we can best ensure that the potential of every one of our citizens can be fulfilled. And it is by remaining a member of the EU that we can best ensure this aim is reached. The question at the upcoming referendum is not whether the UK, including Northern Ireland, could manage outside the EU, but what is best for our country’s future. The Government has reached the clear view that the UK’s national interest will be best served by the UK remaining part of a reformed EU.