New ICM poll of 1,000 businesses: 52% think the EU is “failing”
16 October 2006
New ICM poll of 1,000 businesses:
A new ICM poll of 1,000 Chief Executives, commissioned by Open Europe, finds that businesses feel that the European Union is moving in the wrong direction, and producing too much costly regulation.
The survey finds that businesses think the cost of implementing EU regulations now outweighs the benefit of the Single Market they are supposed to create. Even the businesses which do the most trade in other EU countries feel the same way.
The poll finds that by a margin of 60% to 30%, businesses would now support moves to renegotiate the existing treaties, to radically reduce the powers of the EU back to a basic free trade area.
Simon Wolfson, Chief Executive, Next plc said: “There is now a general feeling across all types of businesses in all sectors that there are just far too many prescriptive regulations coming out of Brussels. What makes people really annoyed is that all this regulation doesn’t seem to be doing either business or employees or consumers much good.”
Michael Spencer, Chief Executive, ICAP plc said: “People in business are fed up with the volume of costly regulation the EU is producing. In the City people are becoming more and more sceptical about the value we are getting from it all.”
Key points:
Methodology
ICM surveyed 1,000 Chief Executives between 11 and 29 September. Professional business polls of this size and reliability are rare because they are very time-consuming to run.
ICM took a meaningful sample of businesses of all sizes - four groups of interviews with 250 chief executives in each of the following size categories: (i) 0-4 employees (ii) 5-49 employees (iii) 50-249 employees and (iv) 250+ employees. ICM also asked how much trade each respondent company did with the rest of the EU.
Here we present the data weighted by firm size – businesses are weighted according to the number of people they employ, and so effectively larger businesses have a proportionally bigger “vote”.
Key findings
Regulatory burden felt to be rising. Despite the Commission’s pledge to reduce regulation, there is a very strong perception that the burden of regulation imposed by the EU is still increasing. Interestingly, this is not just a typical ‘small business grumbling’ – the perception of increasing regulation is strongest among the largest businesses. Overall, 59% think the burden of EU regulation is increasing, 35% think it is staying the same and just 4% think it is decreasing. However, among the largest businesses, (250+ employees) a stunning 70% think regulation is increasing, 27% staying the same and just 2% decreasing.
This finding comes after Enterprise Commissioner Günter Verheugen last week warned that EU regulations are now costing the European economy €600bn a year, and that attempts at deregulation have so far been thwarted by powerful civil servants within the European Commission.
Increased regulation is seen to have outweighed the benefits of the Single Market. We put to respondents the point that some legislation is needed to create a Single Market, and asked whether they felt that, for their company, the benefits of the Single Market had outweighed the cost of the new regulations needed to create it. 35% said the costs of the extra regulation were outweighed by the benefits of the Single Market. However, 54% said the costs of the extra regulation outweighed the benefits of the Single Market. Even among the businesses that do the most trade with the rest of the EU, a majority feel the same. 51% of the businesses that do “a lot” of trade with the EU think that the costs of the Single Market outweigh the benefits while 43% think there has been a net benefit.
At present business thinks the EU is “failing.” 52% agreed with the statement that “The EU is failing. Britain will be more prosperous and secure if we keep the Pound and take back powers from the EU”. Just 36% agree with the statement that “The EU is a success. Britain will be more prosperous and secure if we join the Euro and give more powers to the EU”.
Overall, business would like to renegotiate the UK’s involvement with the EU back to essentially just a free trade area. ICM asked respondents: “Do you think that Britain should or should not re-negotiate the existing EU treaties so that they are reduced to trade and association agreements only?” 60% thought it should, 30% thought it should not. Even the largest businesses (250+) supported the idea by a margin of 52% to 37%, and those who do a lot of trade in Europe, by 55% to 38%.
Notes for Editors:
1. For more information please contact Neil O’Brien on 0207 197 2333 or 07973 142775.
2. Supporters of Open Europe include: Stuart Rose, Chief Executive Marks and Spencer plc; Sir Crispin Davis, Chief Executive, Reed Elsevier Group plc; Sir David Lees, Chairman, GKN plc; David Ross, Chairman, National Express Group plc; Sir John Egan, Chairman, Severn Trent plc; Alun Catchcart, Chairman, Avis Europe; and Bobby Hashemi, founder, Coffee Republic. A full list can be found here
3. A summary of other results is attached below. A presentation of the main findings is available here