‘UK benefited least from our greatest achievement,’
says EU in last Single Market report before Brexit
Official ‘Single Market Scoreboard 2020’ ranks UK bottom, at No.28 out of 28 EU countries
Montage © Facts4EU.Org
With the 2nd highest net contributions, the UK got the least benefit from the EU’s pride and joy
All readers will remember how the EU’s Single Market was held up by the state-sponsored Remain Establishment as the jewel amongst the reasons why it was essential for the United Kingdom to remain a member of the European Union.
Prime Minister David Cameron, Chancellor George Osborne, and all of “the Great and the Good” didn’t stop talking about it. Without being a member of the Single Market, the public was told, the UK was more or less finished. Between 500,000-820,000 people would lose their jobs almost immediately, the UK economy would fall off a cliff, house prices would plummet, and the defence of the Realm would be in peril.
So, how did the UK actually do out of the EU’s Single Market, according to the EU itself?
Brexit Facts4EU.Org has reviewed the last official EU ‘Single Market Scoreboard 2020’ before the United Kingdom finally left on 31 December 2020. Here is the EU’s verdict.
“The UK has the lowest trade integration in the Single Market for goods and the third lowest trade integration for services.”
- Official EU Single Market Scoreboard, 2020 report
The Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP gave Facts4EU.Org his thoughts on our report.
"The more revealing figures show the UK’s growth rate fell after we joined the EEC and fell again once they completed the single market in 1992. That was why some of us campaigned to leave the single market as well as leaving the EU.
The single market was designed against us and promoted continental exports to us to replace our home production."
- The Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP, 17 Aug 2021
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
How the EU's Single Market delivered nothing for the UK's trade in GOODS
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org - click to enlarge
The chart shows the percentage of a country’s GDP represented by trade in goods with other EU countries (average of imports and exports). This is how the EU itself summarises the Single Market and trade.
The EU ranks its Single Market at the top of all its ‘greatest achievements’
It is important to be clear about the EU’s Single Market. It wasn’t a surprise that David Cameron, George Osborne, the BBC, and the rest of the Remain Establishment talked about the Single Market so much. The EU rates it as its ‘greatest achievement’.
As ever, Facts4EU.Org quotes from the EU Commission itself:-
“EXECUTIVE SUMMARY”
“The Single Market ranks at the top among the greatest accomplishments of European integration. For over 25 years, it has been delivering growth, jobs, legal certainty to business, a wide choice of safe products to consumers and guaranteeing the free movement to EU citizens in the Member States. It is part of our daily life, interweaving the activities of businesses and consumers across borders.”
- EU Commission website, accessed 17 Aug 2021
“Ah, but what about services?” cry the Remainer-Rejoiners. “This is the UK's strength!”
Facts4EU.Org also analysed the EU’s figures on the benefits of the Single Market to each country in respect of the service economy.
Firstly, we must once again point out that the Single Market does not work for services – the UK’s strength – by the EU’s own admission.
“The Single Market – this jewel that is all too often taken for granted –
does not function properly for services”- Elżbieta Bieńkowska, EU Commissioner for the Single Market, 2017
That said, the UK got almost as little benefit from its strength in services as in goods
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
How the EU's Single Market delivered nothing for the UK's trade in SERVICES
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org - click to enlarge
The chart shows the percentage of a country’s GDP represented by trade in services (financial and non-financial) with other EU countries (average of imports and exports). This is how the EU itself characterises this.
Our report above was given excellent coverage in an article in the Daily Express today.
© Express Newspapers / Reach PLC - click to read
Observations
Year after year Facts4EU.Org has summarised the official annual reports from the EU Commission on the performance of its “greatest achievement” – the Single Market.
Year after year the UK has come bottom – benefiting the least out of all 28 member countries overall.
Above we have summarised the last EU report before the United Kingdom formally left the EU on 31 December 2020. This data is incontrovertible – it comes directly from the EU's very own “Single Market Scoreboard” which is published each year.
Why is Facts4EU.Org publishing this analysis?
Imagine for a moment if the EU's official 'Scoreboard' had shown the United Kingdom at the top, in terms of the benefits it received in trade with the EU's Single Market. The BBC, Financial Times, Guardian, Sky News and ITN would have been all over this. There would have been daily laments about the economic catastrophe of leaving the Single Market.
Instead, things have gone rather quiet. We have not seen the results of the EU's official Single Market Scoreboard 2020 published anywhere. This is why we have researched and published this report. The British public deserve to know these facts, and we very much hope that a national newspaper willl run with this story today.
As for the BBC, well we all know the answer to that one...
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[ Sources: EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 17 Aug 2021
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