Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Japans warns UK of job losses if it leaves EU

  • MPs are expected to debate the 'balance of competences' review (Photo: UK Parliament)

Japan has become the latest economic power to urge the UK not to leave the EU, warning that the move could put over 100,000 jobs on the line.

The warning comes as the UK government prepares to publish the first batch of audits on EU policy making this week as part of its 'balance of competences' review.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

In a written submission to the UK as part of the review revealed over the weekend, the Japanese government said that 1,300 Japanese companies had invested in the UK, creating over 130,000 jobs.

"This fact demonstrates that the advantage of the UK as a gateway to the European market has attracted Japanese investment," it stated, adding that it expected that "the UK will maintain a strong voice and continue to play a major role in the EU."

The UK is keen for the EU to shift its priorities towards trade promotion such as the just underway negotiations with the US on a free trade agreement.

Meanwhile, talks aimed at securing an EU trade deal with Japan, the world's third largest economy, are also expected to start formally in the coming months.

For its part, the US government has also repeatedly cautioned the UK against leaving the EU.

Foreign secretary William Hague launched the 'balance of competences' review in July 2012 claiming that it would serve as an audit of EU policy making across a range of areas but would not bind the government in negotiations.

Over 30 separate reports covering policies ranging from trade and the single market to foreign and development policy are expected to be published between now and autumn 2014.

The conservative/liberal coalition has also adopted legislation to create a 'referendum block', meaning that all future EU treaty changes involving further transfers of power to Brussels would be subject to a public vote.

A government memo launching the review commented that it would serve as "an audit of what the EU does and how it affects the UK."

"It is important that Britain has a clear sense of how our national interests interact with the EU’s roles, particularly at a time of great change for the EU," it added.

Earlier this year, prime minister David Cameron outlined plans to renegotiate the terms of the UK's EU membership and then hold an 'in/out' referendum if his Conservative party wins the next election.

US and Japan warn UK on EU trade

Washington and Tokyo say trade relations with the EU are more important to them than those with Britain in the context of Brexit.

Opinion

Japan is back: Is Europe ready?

The expected free trade agreement between the EU and Japan will help the historic partners to forge a solid and mutually advantageous anchor in the troubled waters of current international politics.

Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access

70 percent of northern Gaza is facing famine, new data shows. There is one shower per 5,500 people, and 888 people per toilet. 'How can you live in these conditions?" asked Natalie Boucly of UNRWA at the European Humanitarian Forum.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us