What is the CBI?
The CBI is the Confederation of British Industry. We are a non-profit, apolitical body. Our purpose is to represent the views of business in the United Kingdom, usually to the Government. We get our mandate from our members to represent them on a wide range of issues.
What is the European Union (EU) referendum?
It is a vote on whether the UK should leave or remain in the European Union. The date that it will take place is currently unknown but the UK government has committed to it taking place before the end of 2017.
You can read our report Choosing Our Future
Do you want the UK to stay in the EU?
The CBI represents the views of our members. In this case the majority of our members believe that the benefits of being in the EU outweigh the costs, but they believe it must reform to work better for business.
Are you part of the ‘in campaign’?
No. We are not affiliated with any of the 'in’ or ‘out’ campaign groups set up in advance of the referendum.
What does 'reform' mean?
The UK Government is currently negotiating with the EU to make it work better. For our members this is important as we want the EU to work better for business by:
- Reducing and simplifying the rules so business can grow
- Breaking down barriers to European trade in services
- Supporting online businesses
- Making sure the European Union works for all countries
- Keeping spending under control and focusing it on jobs and growth
- Doing more to open up global markets
What if there is no reform?
We will look at the results of the UK Government negotiations when they have concluded and will continue to engage with our members so that we accurately represent their views. We can then make sure that we continue to represent the majority view of 190,000 businesses in the referendum.
How do you know what your members think?
We ask them. In 2013 the CBI undertook its largest ever consultation of our members about the EU and they were in favour of remaining in a reformed EU. The result of this consultation can be seen in our 2013 report Our Global Future.
We have a thorough and ongoing consultation process facilitated by our committee structures across the United Kingdom and we talk on a daily basis to members through our account management and policy engagement.
Do all your members want to stay in the EU?
Like most things, our members have different opinions and we never claim there is a uniform view. The majority of CBI members want to be in a reformed EU – that means they gain from EU membership but think it can be better.
What happens if your members change their minds?
We keep in touch with our members regularly to make sure that we are getting it right. The CBI will always represent the view of its members that pay their subscriptions.
Who are the CBI’s members?
The CBI is a confederation. This means we represent like-minded groups and businesses. There are 140 trade associations who represent lots of smaller and medium sized firms in our membership. We also have businesses who join us directly. In total this adds up to around 190,000 businesses who employ nearly 7 million people. That is one third of the private sector-employed workforce.
Our members come from every sector of the economy:
- agriculture
- automotive
- aerospace
- defence
- construction
- creative
- communications
- financial services
- Information Technology
- e-business
- management consultancy
- manufacturing
- professional services
- retail
- transport
- tourism
- utilities
Do you have public sector members?
Yes. And while public sector members are a tiny proportion of our overall membership and represent less than five per cent of our income, the CBI is proud to represent these organisations as part of its diverse membership. Overall, the CBI speaks for 190,000 businesses of all sizes and sectors who, collectively, shape and influence our stance on relevant issues, including Europe.
Do you have Trade Association members?
Yes. The CBI was founded on 3 July 1965 when the British Employers’ Confederation, the Federation of British Industries and the National Association of British Manufacturers joined together to form the Confederation of British Industry.
The strength of the CBI comes from the breadth of its membership, including 140 trade association members cover every sector of the UK economy. They include a diverse range of firms, from brewers to potters, engineers to creative industries, and agricultural businesses.
Does the CBI get money from the EU to promote it?
No. We are funded by subscriptions from our membership and do not have to promote the EU. In fact our members expect us to speak out against harmful European legislation on business, as we often do. We regularly represent our members in Brussels and occasionally cooperate with our equivalent sister federations in other European countries.
Why do you receive money from the EU then?
We receive funding via a competitive tender process for our economic analysis. The CBI conducts a number of monthly and quarterly economic surveys of businesses, on manufacturing, retail, and service sectors, which are an important bellwether of UK business and economic trends.
These surveys are used by the European Commission to enable it to collect robust European-wide economic data, as it does from all the 28 EU member states. As part of this, the CBI takes part in a competitive tendering process (every 4 years) to provide data on the UK economy on a regular basis, and as a result the European Commission currently contributes to some of the financing of these economic surveys.
This amounts to around £148,000 per year, representing around 0.6% of our annual income. It is a measure of the reliability of our data and competence of our economists that we are able to do this and any money received in this way is ring-fenced for this purpose.
The CBI also sells its economic data to other leading organisations including:
- Bloomberg
- Thomson Reuters
- Factset
- Haver Analytics
- Macrobond
- Global Insight
We also receive small reimbursements for travel to attend European Social Dialogue meetings.
On the CBI's EU survey
Independent research firm, YouGov, conducted a survey for the CBI on the EU referendum. It was a member survey, not a poll of all British businesses. YouGov is a member of the British Polling Council.
More information about the survey respondents can be found on the YouGov website
Did you support the UK joining the Euro?
At the time we did, as looking into the future our members thought it would be beneficial for UK growth and jobs. That was about trying to predict the impact of a new initiative though, now the debate is about the benefits our members tell us they get from being a part of the EU in the here and now and how it can be reformed for the better. There is currently no pressure from the CBI’s membership to adopt the Euro.
What is the overall benefit of EU membership to households?
The role of the CBI in the forthcoming EU referendum is to inform the debate from the perspective of business and the economy.
As a contribution to the debate, the CBI has undertaken a literature review of credible academic studies into the impact of the UK’s membership of the EU on the UK economy. This review was first undertaken in 2013, and has recently been updated to take account of new studies in the past two years.
The results are intended to be helpful to businesses, opinion formers and the general public who may not easily be able to access and assess all the available academic studies, which are contained in diverse publications and can be hard to compare.
The mid-range estimate of the overall impact on the UK economy of EU membership is around 4-5% of GDP, or £2,700 - £3,300 per household.