Pascal Lamy said if Britain leaves the 28-nation-bloc, it will lose the advantages of being part of the Single Market, which has access to the 500 million inhabitants of the European countries.
“Having a Single Market within the EU 28 is a huge competitive advantage for the UK economic opportunities,” he told The Guardian.
“Britons have their passions like everybody else, but overall they are rational people. So, why would you rationally shoot yourself in your own foot?,” he added.
The former head of the WTO supported continued membership of the UK in the EU, saying it would also be “good for Europe” if Britain, as a country “ahead of the curve” in services, stays in the bloc.
“Tapping the EU Single Market and making it work better – we need the UK to do that, because it is good for Europe and because the UK has a know-how in services which would benefit the rest of the continent”.
British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to hold an in-out vote on Britain’s future relationship with the EU during the early part of the next parliament, by the end of 2017 at the latest, if his Conservative party wins the 2015 general election.
The Conservative PM has made the referendum pledge under pressure from his party’s anti-EU backbenchers as well as from his coalition partners in the Liberal Democrat party.
Earlier last week, a YouGov survey for The Sun revealed that Britons are equally divided on whether or not the UK should remain as a member state of the EU.
A majority of voters, however, said they would choose the country to remain an EU member if Cameron succeeds in renegotiation of London’s ties with the bloc.
MOS/NN
Source Article from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/11/23/336203/uks-eu-breakup-shot-in-foot/
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