The City and the EU: too big to stay — or too big to go?

In its first session, last Friday, the LSE Commission on the Future of Britain in Europe deliberated on “EU Financial Integration & Protection for Eurozone “Outs”. A good part of the conversation was spent on whether the British financial sector is very distinctive and hence incompatible with its continental counterparts, or whether it is precisely its size and domestic prominence that necessitates stronger ties with the rest of the EU. Waltraud Schelkle, the convenor of the hearing, argues that since the UK has chosen to be an international financial centre, it is in Britain’s vital national interest to stay in the EU, because it needs to influence its decisions about financial regulation.