UK lobby firm criticised over Euroscepticism

Date: 07/12/1995

By Tim Jones

TOP UK business executives in Belgium have complained to their London lobbying organisation about what they consider to be its anti-EU bias.

In an internal newsletter circulated to members of the Institute of Directors (IoD) in Belgium, officers complain that the 'Eurosceptic' stance of their leaders in the UK is damaging the 92-year-old organisation and undermining their efforts to win over non-British recruits.

They are particularly disappointed with the views of new director-general Tim Melville-Ross, who took over as head of the 48,000-strong business lobby in August. The former building society chairman, who replaced the 'Eurosceptical' Peter Morgan, was expected to be more open to the idea of a single currency.

“There is a feeling of dismay that someone who professed to be Euro-positive, and was welcomed by European members as such, has not lived up to his billing,” says a local member.

The newsletter is even more critical of the new head of the IoD's policy unit, former television journalist and Treasury economist Ruth Lea. “In reality, the director-general espouses policies as anti-European as can be found amongst any Eurosceptic group,” it says.

Local members seem most upset by research into the effects of a single currency, which concluded that it was not in the interests of the UK to join a single currency bloc in “the foreseeable future”.

But Melville-Ross says Belgian branch members should not confuse opposition to quick membership of the single currency with anti-Europeanism.

“The institute is very much in favour of the European Union and the single market. We are emphatically not part of the small group of people in the UK who think we should withdraw from the EU. Indeed, to have concerns about the single currency might help the EU to develop in a more constructive way,” he said.