Open Europe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Open Europe is a London based think-tank which was set up by UK business people to campaign for reform in the European Union.
While Open Europe does not advocate withdrawal from the EU, it is highly critical of the process of European integration and has called for substantial powers to be returned to EU member states.
Open Europe was set up by some of the people behind the campaign against the UK joining the euro and the EU Constitution.
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[edit] Supporters
Lord Leach of Fairford Lord Leach is Open Europe's Chairman. Lord Leach has been closely involved with the EU debate in the UK for over a decade. He is the former Chairman of the campaign group Business for Sterling. His book Europe - a concise encyclopedia of the European Union is now in its fourth edition.
Derek Scott Derek Scott is Open Europe's Deputy Chairman. Derek was Economics Advisor to Tony Blair from 1997-2003 and is currently a visiting professor at London's Cass Business School. In September 2004 he published Off Whitehall which looks at the economic arguments for and against joining the euro.
Michael Spencer - Michael Spencer is founder and Chief Executive of Icap, the world's largest interdealer broker. He is also currently the owner of spread betting firm City Index and the chairman of stockbroking firm Numis Securities.
Simon Wolfson - Simon Wolfson is Chief Executive of Next (retailer). At 36, Simon Wolfson is the second youngest CEO of a FTSE100 company.
[edit] Activities
Open Europe holds regular seminars and discussions on EU reform. Recent speakers at Open Europe events include William Hague, Gisela Stuart, Don Brash, Vincent Cable and Professor John Gillingham
Open Europe regularly publishes original research aimed at promoting new ideas among key EU policy makers, business people and academics.
Members of the organisation often write articles in European newspapers. Open Europe's director Neil O'Brien argued in The Spectator that the EU betrays the world's poor by maintaining protectionist trade policies and by blocking agreement in the Doha round WTO negotiations.
Head of Research Lorraine Mullally had an article in the Swedish Daily Aftonbladet with Johnny Munkhammar from Swedish free-market think tank Timbro which argues that high-tax, redistributive economies like Sweden are failing the poorest in society unlike more liberal economies such as the UK and Ireland.
In an article for the Financial Times Rodney Leach, the group's Chairman, argued that the UK Government needed to be more active in attempting to reform the EU.
[edit] Criticisms
Peter Mandelson attacked the group in an interview in The Guardian. He said that the real agenda of the group was “less integration, less strength embodied in our single market and fewer opportunities to build our economic strength.” He argued that “Those are the people who are most insidious since they maintain a pretence of being open to Europe but actually want to lead Britain away from and out of Europe.” [1]
Daily Telegraph journalist David Rennie criticised an opinion poll carried out by Open Europe “I hate to say this, because I know and like the Open Europe people, but I think the bulk of their poll is not that useful, because the wording of their questions was not neutral enough.” [2]
[edit] Issues addressed
In a recent pamphlet, The High Price of Hot Air they argue that the EU emissions trading scheme is an "environmental and economic failure" which has cost public services in the UK such as the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds while oil companies such as Shell and Esso have profited. The Sunday Telegraph noted that the study showed how the UK economy could "be worse off to the tune of £470m" because of the scheme.
In March 2006, Open Europe published a book of essays by thinkers from around Europe. Beyond the European Social Model argues that the high-tax and highly regulated “social model” is not working, and that the time has come for the EU and its member states to take a different approach. The Business noted that the authors found that the incomes of the poorest 10% of Swedes have grown six times slower than the poor in the UK and eight times slower than the poor in Ireland over the past decade.
Open Europe's pamphlet on the controversial EU Services Directive, Can Europe Deliver? argued that what had started out as a promising idea had been rendered meaningless by socialist opposition. And as the Spanish daily Cinco Dias reported they argued that it could open the door to masses more EU regulation, making it "worse than useless".
In their initial pamphlet, Why the EU must reform to survive, in conjunction with Oxford Economic Forecasting Open Europe claim that the EU's trade barriers cost each British family £1,500 per year.
