ACE polls engineering and consultancy over Europe in-out referendum

Peter Campbell
03 June 2015

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New ACE poll to gauge engineering and consultancy business viewpoint on the Tory European referendum - make your view known.

In last month’s Queen’s Speech the government announced that it would legislate for an ‘In/Out’ referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union. This was a key commitment from the Conservative party in the run up to the election and promises to shape the country’s economic, political, and social relationship with the continent, regardless of the result.

Any campaign is going to be predicated on the outcome of the Prime Minister’s efforts to renegotiate the terms of the UK’s membership. Key aspects of this will be how the UK is expected to transpose regulations set from Brussels into UK law, the accountability of the institutions at the heart of Europe, and perhaps most challenging of all for Mr Cameron, the free movement of EU citizens.

To take part in the ACE's survey on the UK's European Union membereship, click here.

Politically as well, the Prime Minister will have to walk a delicate tightrope, if he is to campaign to remain inside the EU. While he will be able to count on support from large sections of Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP, the threat from UKIP, his own party’s right flank, and even members of his cabinet, mean he will need to bring some real wins back from his talks with Juncker, Merkel, and Hollande.

Current polling suggests there is a lead coalescing around the wish to remain in the EU, however, as we saw in Scotland, this could change on the back of one different set of results.

Ahead of the beginning of any campaign, ACE is keen to understand the views of industry. To that end a survey has been drafted asking questions such as how important the EU market is to our sector, whether ACE should take a public position on the referendum, and what that position should be.

To take part in the ACE's survey, please click here. It will take no more than five minutes and your help in this will ensure ACE’s policy is an accurate reflection of the views of the engineering community.