As Westminster wheezed towards the summer recess, Terry Scuoler, chief executive of manufacturers’ organisation the EEF, was announcing details of another kind of political break from the day job.
Scuoler is to chair Ceemet, the organisation that represents manufacturers within Europe – some 230,000 companies employing around
20 million people.
Staunchly pro-Europe and a passionate advocate of manufacturing, Scuoler is seemingly a natural choice to lead the interests of the engineering industry in the 24 out of 28 European Union member states that Ceemet encompasses.
He said that, despite the disparate countries and sectors covered, European manufacturing has common goals: “Whether you go to Finland or Rome, the agenda is investment, growth and productivity. It overlaps.”
Skills are likely to be an important issue across national boundaries, and are an already familiar bugbear for the UK. Scuoler is keen to point out the benefits of immigration. He would like to see the British government ensure that foreign nationals who graduate in engineering in the UK are not forced to go home to reapply for visas if they find jobs here.
He added: “It should be easier for overseas, non-EU good-quality Stem candidates to get visas to come in and look for work.” Foreign graduates without sponsoring employers must leave and reapply later, but Scuoler says this restricts an influx of talent into the country.
The EEF has campaigned for Britain to remain part of the European Union for a long time, making Scuoler and Ceemet a natural fit. There may, of course, be a referendum on EU membership if the Conservatives win the general election next year.
“I sincerely hope that whoever is in government from May next year will see the overwhelming argument for remaining in the EU,” said Scuoler.
The EEF boss argued that if “David Cameron is able to drive forward reform within Europe then I think that would be positive”. He said that the agenda should be geared towards investment and productivity with “less interfering and bureaucratic meddling”.
The European Commission should be “streamlined” and is arguably undemocratic, he added. There should be fewer commissioners, said Scuoler. “And the commission also needs to be more accountable in terms of the economic impact of some of the legislation it is trying to bring through.”
There are no doubts over whether another referendum will take place: the hotly anticipated poll – scheduled for September – on whether Scotland should remain part of the UK. A proud Scot himself, Scuoler is pro-UK just as he supports the wider union with Europe.
He said: “I have no doubt that Scotland could survive and possibly even do well outside the union of Great Britain, but in terms of history, culture and economic and industrial integration, and the wider market that is the UK, Scotland will be much better off as part of a greater union.”
Some companies are already expressing concern over how they would do business with or base themselves in a separate Scotland. Scuoler said: “That’s just a natural follow-on from the risk and lack of certainty in the referendum process.”