Malcolm Sweeting, the senior partner of London-based magic circle global giant Clifford Chance, has joined other senior British business figures in warning David Cameron that the bubbling suggestions that the UK should renegotiate its EU position -- or indeed completely bail out of the union -- are damaging the country’s commercial interests.
Wholesale renegotiation
Clifford Chance has 35 offices in 25 countries around the world, including 11 in EU member states.
According to a report on The Lawyer newspaper web site today, Mr Sweeting has linked with the president of the Confederation of British Industry, Roger Carr, and the buccaneering founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, in signing an open letter published in the Financial Times. The report says the letter acknowledges there is need for EU reform but says ‘we must be very careful not to call for a wholesale renegotiation of our EU membership, which would almost certainly be rejected’.
The letter highlights areas where EU reform would be beneficial, notably ‘the working time directive and the antiquated EU budget, and completion of the single market in services such as digital, telecoms and energy’.
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