We gain from membership

The North East is due to get £664million in EU funding in the next five years.

Just in this region alone recently released figures show Newcastle and Durham Universities have benefited from over £50m of EU funding since 2008. This funding enables universities to conduct ground breaking research, benefiting the local economy and increasing economic growth.

Our membership has helped improve workers’ rights and protections. The EU is directly responsible for getting UK workers the rights to paid holidays. Its given us maternity rights and has helped even out the playing field for agency workers.

We get consumer protections from our membership too. The European union voted to ban data roaming charges in Europe within the next two years. This means no more nasty charges for using your phones abroad.

We get environmental protections with our membership to the EU. One such cause is the EU regulations on air quality, This has ensured our air quality is the highest it’s ever been. Helping protect us and the environment at the same time.

There are countless other things that I could mention that show us why we locally and nationally are better off in the EU. The risk of a Brexit is too much of a risk for both us in the North East but nationally.

Jonathon Proctor