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UK companies, including farmers, continue to suffer from hidden state
subsidies on the continent that undermine our competitiveness. The UK's
high compliance of EU regulations and strict vigilance by government
inspectors precipitates higher costs for our businesses.
KLM UK Engineering at Norwich Airport is a classic example of a company
with high technical expertise in aviation maintenance. It employs a highly
skilled labour force and offers an excellent service that ensures
reliability and guaranteed cover for insurance.
The Portuguese Government, keen to help create employment for its
citizens, has offered a €50m (£30m) soft loan for training to a
Portuguese engineering company that will now compete directly with the
Norwich based firm. Portuguese wages, taxes, housing, food and transport
costs are lower than in the UK. This huge subsidy of £30m gives
additional advantage to the Portuguese company. This is not a level
playing field, as our government can offer no such benefit to KLM
Engineering Services in Norwich.
How can our people preserve their jobs and protect and enhance their
livelihood if we allow EU Member States to break rules of an open
competitive single market that is free from state subsidy? Too many jobs
are lost in the UK and too much of our EU contribution is used to finance
and subsidise workers in low-wage EU Member States and accession countries
waiting to join an enlarged EU.
We must not allow such job losses and closures of our businesses. We must
withhold the cost of compliance from our EU contribution, so that we can
equally support our UK jobs and businesses.
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