CBI Confederation of British Industry : Low Associates and the EU

Low Associates have been organising and delivering business-centred policy conferences in the UK since 2010. To begin with our clients were all UK based, but we soon found we had the expertise to tender for Europe-wide contracts and, because the UK is a member of the EU, we were able to tender for European Commission business.

Since then we have made a number of successful proposals to Directorates-General of the European Commission and we have delivered numerous conferences, in cities across the EU including Barcelona, Vilnius and Napoli.

We are able to put on these conferences only because we can work across borders without bureaucratic constraint, and because we have been able to recruit staff from countries such as Netherlands, Italy and Slovakia with language skills that would be much harder to find among UK-based candidates. We are now collaborating with a German partner; we have an office in Brussels as well as the UK, and we have been able draw on teams and contracts in each of the other twenty-seven EU member countries, as well as those countries in association with the EU, so we are now very strongly positioned to bid for future contracts all across Europe.

But, in order to grow further, like any business we need access to customers, capital and staff. Each of these are maximised by membership of the EU single market and, as for any business with ambitions to expand beyond its national borders, leaving this single market would threaten the prospect for any future growth - not to mention what we have already built, protecting our 16 employees and associates here in the UK.

This is not just about tariffs or the principle of free trade. It is a matter of whether potential clients see us as offering a 'European' solution, or a domestic solution, and deciding to whom they should offer their business.

• Other business case studies covering how the UK being in the EU impacts them can be found here
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