Those who want us to pull out of the EU, such as Boris Johnson, say is it time to break free – as only then could we control our destiny. This is Project Fantasy. In the modern world, no individual and no country has absolute control. As ex-Conservative minister and European commissioner Chris Patten put it, a man, naked, hungry and alone in the Sahara desert would be free and sovereign – but also doomed.
We can only advance our economic and political interests by engaging with other nations. By being part of a larger group, we lose some freedom of action, but gain influence.
When it comes to the EU, the economic trade-off is as follows. We gain access to the largest single market in the world. In return, we have to pay a membership fee, play by the rules – including free movement – and put up with some irritating red tape. The net budget cost is around £100 per person per year. The economic benefits are many times that size, even if it is impossible to come up with an exact figure.
Despite eurosceptic claims to the contrary, Britain normally gets its way in the EU; it has been on the winning side of votes in the Council 87% of the time in the past six years. It was also the prime mover behind the EU’s single market, competition policy and eastwards expansion to former Soviet states.
Having to make trade-offs is not unique to our EU membership. Membership of the NATO military alliance gives us the restrictions and obligations inherent in collective defence – should countries such as Turkey, Portugal and Estonia be attacked, we would have to help them. But that loss of freedom is not an argument for leaving NATO.
Nor do eurosceptics say we should quit the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Quite the opposite. Many, such as Nigel Lawson, chair of the Vote Leave campaign, think WTO membership could give us nearly as good access to global markets as EU membership. He is mistaken. But in any case, the WTO impinges on our sovereignty, restricting the tariffs we can put on others’ goods, the subsidies we can give to industry, and so on.
The 13,200 international agreements Britain has signed since 1834 constrain our action in areas from climate change, chemical weapons, war crimes and torture to the rules we apply to banking and air traffic. Over 700 “contain references to the possibility of binding dispute settlement in the event of disagreements”, according to Dominic Grieve, the former Attorney General. What’s more, this treaty-making is not a new phenomenon. Even at the height of the British Empire, when some romanticist might imagine we had absolute control, we were at it.
If we quit the EU and still want access to its market, we’d still have to follow most of the rules without having a vote on them. That would involve less control, not more.
Edited by Jack Schickler
Correction: this article was amended on 5 March concerning the number of international agreements Britain has entered into since 1834. The correct figure is 13,200, not 13,2000.
Correction: this article was amended on 9 March to make clear that Nato membership doesn’t require Britain to go to war if another member is attacked.