How will you vote in the EU referendum?

Halsgran would the funding come out of the astronomical amount we pay to be a member of the EU?

I think we do need more straightforward information readily available (not propaganda).
How much these projects cost, how much we pay in compared to how much we get back for all these projects and the cost of administering what would seem to be a cumbersome system of allocating this money.

Perhaps it would be preferable to be as it was years ago as a Common Market,but more efficiently run. I don't think what would seem to be a progession towards a United States of Europe will ever work with such a disparate group of countries.

Many people could be concerned about losing their national identities in the push forward. We have seen the results with other cobbled together unions (or with takeovers) in the past and perhaps we should take a lesson from history.

But I could be persuaded either way by friends and family who know more than me and by considering impartial facts.

I think the EU is corrupt now and will fall apart soon so really no need to leave now especially if it costs us money to do so. No doubt another sort of 'union' will arise and hopefully it will be a real "common market" the next time. I'll vote 'to leave' solely because it shows how I feel now. I think Scotland will leave the UK anyway - the Irish won't at the moment and Wales won't cos they will be a bit scared!

I'm still undecided, but leaning towards leaving. Many years ago I voted to join the Common Market, but it has gone far beyond being a trading market now and I hate the loss of our independence.
I would like to see a series of televised debates, done by non-politicians
and setting out both sides of the argument. I don't feel I know quite enough about the benefits/disadvantes of being in the EU.
But I am definitely leaning towards leaving..... Long live Great Britain.

Do we have a voice? People see Britain as the "fence-sitter" or even worse, always saying "No" to hare-brained schemes or laws. We have a very small proportion of the vote these days, so where is the benefit? for us and anyone else...

I'm still undecided!

I will definitely vote to stay. Most business people believe it is best for business - and therefore best for the economy and jobs.
I don't think the main emotional arguments put forward by UKIP for leaving stand up to scrutiny.
One is about "sovereign power" - we'll still have to follow pretty much every EU rule, and won't get a say in how they are developed or changed.
The one about controlling immigration from the EU. (And yes that will include anyone now physically on the continent.) The French will shrug their shoulders and turn their backs on Calais. Thousands of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers will arrive in Channel ports. Counterproductive if your aim is to keep them out. Why would the French be bothered any more?

Meanwhile the "Australian-style points system" that Farage keeps banging on about will limit the supply of EU labour that is currently keeping several industry sectors afloat.
But there is the bigger picture - after centuries and centuries of war between European nations, there is peace at last across Europe. Not something to be sniffed at.

OUT

Jalima: All 28 countries have to contribute to the project funding and in any case it is not 100% funding (which everyone assumes) that we get - it is 70% of the cost of the project, the other 30% has to be found by contributions by the partner countries who are delivering the project. For instance, most of the partners within the 28 countries are not-for-profit organisations (as we are), social enterprises, community interest companies. All costs have to be accounted for by receipts, boarding passes, etc. If there is a gravy train it is not by the contributors, I would like a salary, that would be good. On the other hand the process of bidding - I gave up on the UK Government procurement, I tried the National Lottery, and many others, business angels wouldn't fund - they want to see a return on their investment - so many hurdles, my time was better spent doing rather than trying to convince people to help. It is a lot easier I found to bid for funding from Europe, and we have an excellent UK National Agency anyway who monitor us here in UK. In 30 years I never got a penny-worth of direct help from UK, but I have been able to do a lot of good work which benefits all 28 countries & raises the profile of UK.

I will definitely vote in the EU referendum - if we ever get it! I shall vote OUT, I do not want us to stay in this corrupt bullying organisation. I am totally fed up of all the petty rules and regulations that are being foisted upon us by faceless overpaid beaurocrats.

Economically the Euro has proved to be a millstone for those countries who use it and being outside of the Eurozone has benefited the UK in terms of currency, trade and jobs and allowed the Uk to recover from the financial crisis more quickly. Europe is financially moribund with some countries hovering on the brink to name Greece, France and Italy as examples.

Politically, it is no secret that the 'grande projet' of the EU was ever closer union and rule from Brussels by faceless, unelected Eurocrats. However, even this sinister vehicle is losing its wheels as the migration crisis threatens Schengen and sets the eastern and western members against each other.

Firstly, I think the loss of political autonomy is disastrous for the UK and secondly I think that, while there might be short term economic repercussions for the UK, in the long term free trade within Europe and with the rest of the world will make up for them. There is no way that, beyond a little early vengefulness from the EU member states, they will not trade with the UK.

Out then, with gritted teeth.

I am waiting to see what Cameron can get for us. Up to now, things he is fighting for are not exactly what I want him to fight for. I don't hear anything about getting our decision-making powers back. I understand that it is an EU ruling not to let farmers dredge our becks and rivers, which has contributed massively to the flooding problems we have had over the past few years, this should be changed too.

Maybe I don't understand the issue of not paying 'in work' migrants any benefits for 4 years. If they are in work they are contributing to the countries economy and surely that is a good thing and should be encouraged.

I do agree that the EU has to be reformed, there are so many things wrong with it. I shall read what Cameron puts forward and make my decision then.

It might be worth considering that the government lost the case about applying the bedroom tax to those families with disabled children because the court ruled thar it contravened the European Convention on Human Rights. I have no faith that we will continue to have protection by this Convention against inroads into our rights if we vote to leave.
How many of you have loved ones who work in industry, building sites, farms etc. People complain about 'rules and regulations coming from Brussels' but how many lives have been saved by EU regulations on safety in the work place - always good for a joke I know but since 1976 fatal accidents, for instance, have fallen by 86%!

I hope ex-pats like me get to vote too.
Whatever happens, I won't return to the UK other than flying visits to family occasionally.
I've had my fill of shitty Tory governments.

Out, in the hope that we get decent light bulbs back, washing machines that don't take half a day to do a wash cycle and freezers that don't conk out when it gets too cold.

Having been born at the beginning of WW2, I was lucky enough to survive, when millions didn't. And that is why I would definitely vote to stay in Europe.
When one has encountered the horrors of total war, brought about, not once, but twice, by the warlike and jingoistic nations of Europe, (including us ) it becomes a great comfort to feel that the domestic finances of Germany, France,Italy, and yes, even Greece, together
with the UK, are so intertwined that it would be almost impossible to separate them again; making war between the great nations of Europe a financial impossibility.
I can't remember who advised nations to keep their friends close, and their enemies even closer; but for me, that makes sense.
Remember the blitz, the trenches in WW1. The pointless
slaughter of many millions of men, women and children in two wars, both ostarting in Europe, and spreading to encompass the whole World. I thank God that the European Union makes conflict between the European family of nations unthinkable. We must not let it happen again.

Out, should never have gone there in the first place.

I will vote to stay IN the EU. Politically I am a supporter of the Liberal Democrats and we are supporting the 'IN' vote.
The more links and ties we have with other countries in the World the more we should be preventing wars and other conflicts because we will be on 'speaking terms' and can negotiate our differences.
All my life (85years) my family has had close ties with Europe. Even longer when I think of my Grandmother who was an English Governess to a German family in the 1880s. About that time my husband's grandfather arrived in England from Germany for work, married an English girl, and the family is still here. My maternal Uncles have lived and worked in France and Switzerland in 1920-1940 and now i have a nephew and his family in Switzerland.
We are part of the European landmass and all my reasoning goes for the continuation of the United Kingdom. I have children married to Welsh and Scottish partners BUT we are all BRITISH.

pamgran: Love your views; for that alone we should stay in, if we are not in it we cant influence it.

Definitely out. I voted to stay in what was sold to us as a giant trading partnership. We were hoodwinked last time and I don't want to be again. Why should we have to do what unelected functionaries in Brussels tell us to do when we have no way of de-selecting them if we don't like their policies? At least with our voting system we can get a change of government if we don't like what they do. I have come to really dislike the EU.

you're right we were hoodwinked last time and I enthusiastically voted to go into the common market, but, as I understood it, for trade reasons, not to come part of the U.S of Europe! Had we had a vote on the euro, I would have voted, again, enthusiastically, to adopt this currency! Thank God we didn't. Bearing this in mind, I am very cautious about what to vote this time. Like many on here, all I see is faceless over paid unelected bureaucrats. As for the Kinnocks you can add nepotism, but I doubt they're the only ones! DH, is voting NO, but I'm still very uncertain!

Leave leave leave and the sooner the better! We are getting dragged down with the rest of the EU. Thank goodness we didn't join the EURO. I love Europe, but it is not the EU.

Whilst I agree there are many issues that need sorting out I truly believe we are stronger in the EU. As someone mentioned above I don't trust this government to uphold people's rights and I could see working conditions deteriorate, paid holidays, maternity/paternity leave etc all under threat. I certainly don't want to be more like USA which is where I think some would like us to turn.

I presume all those who are voting out because they think they were hoodwinked about trade matters are really concerned about TTIP, and trying to get their MPs to oppose it.
If we leave Europe there will be no protection from TTIP and being taken over by big business.

No Dj it's about self-determination and not being governed by an unelected, corrupt and self-important bureaucracy in Brussels. It's about democracy in fact.One size will never fit all. We need to decide for ourselves what is best for Great Britain.

Does that not bother those of you who want to stay in? The matters you mention can be fought for and decided in our own Parliament.

I shall vote to remain in the EU. It's not perfect, but far less dangerous than the nationalist and separatist movements which blame everything which ever goes wrong on "THEM" - the others, the outsiders, the foreigners, anyone who is "not one of us".

Surely our generation, even if we don't remember the ravages of national socialism, should understand the dangers of separating, rather than uniting people. We have been so fortunate to live in a peaceful Europe - do not risk damaging that for our children and grandchildren.

I believe we should leave.
My main gripe against the EU is the fact we are a sovereign nation being dictated to by unelected, faceless eurocrats earning obscene salaries, making decisions about how Britain should be run, which we are paying enormous sums of money for the privilege!!
The one thing I think we can probably all agree on, is thank goodness we retained GBP sterling and did not go over to the Euro. A currency, which is only as strong as its weakest link, as proved by the meltdown in Greece.