'EU Effect' Worth £133bn To UK Firms: Report

The European Union brings an additional £670,000 a year for the average British business importing or exporting goods within the bloc, according to analysis by a pro-EU group.

Britain Stronger In Europe, the main campaign for the UK to stay inside the union, said the "EU effect" was worth a total of £133bn in 2014 - benefitting 200,000 companies.
The group also claimed that UK goods trade with the 27 other nations inside the EU was 55% higher as a result of the single market.
It came as a report from Credit Suisse concluded that a vote to leave the European Union could result in a sharp fall in the pound and a 2% hit to UK GDP.
The research found that it would be likely to result in "an immediate and simultaneous economic and financial shock" for the UK with growth dragged back "due to the toxic blend of depressed business confidence, tightening financial conditions, higher inflation and falling real incomes".

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Britain Stronger In Europe's chairman, Stuart Rose, has warned those pushing for a Brexit in the looming referendum that leaving the EU would be a "leap in the dark".
Lord Rose, a former chief executive of Marks & Spencer, said: "Those who want Britain to leave cannot guarantee that Britain will retain full access to Europe's single market. They are putting the benefits at risk.
"Their proposed deal, whereby Britain would somehow retain access to the single market without obeying any of the rules, is a fantasy."

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His organisation's figures have been contradicted by the anti-EU group Vote Leave, who have alleged that the single market has been "at the very least a massive disappointment for the UK, and not far short of a disaster".
Vote Leave has been citing research from Civitas which suggests that UK export growth had slowed considerably following the creation of the European Union in 1993, compared to the trend seen during the common market era in the 20 years beforehand.
Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of Vote Leave, said: "The unquestioning mantra that the single market has been good for British trade is wrong and should be challenged as this research makes crystal clear."

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