EU Referendum - Engagement with regional groups (Edinburgh)

Speakers:

• Tim Werkhoven, Policy Adviser, IFoA

The UK government plans to renegotiate its relationship with the EU and then hold a referendum to stay in, or leave, the EU. Recently, the public debate has been heating up, and the prime minister has specified his negotiation ‘wish-list’.

The outcome of both the renegotiation and the referendum will have wide-ranging and significant impacts on many parts of British society, in the short and in the long term. The IFoA believes that it can help inform the debate on issues that are relevant and important to the public interest, using the specific actuarial skills its members have.

The IFoA wants to look beyond the short term ‘in’ and ‘out’ dichotomy and address long term impacts, based on rigorous analysis and sound data. The IFoA has recently set up an EU referendum working party, consisting of IFoA members and supported by IFoA staff, to prepare the work for that. So far, three themes have emerged:

• The demographical impact of changes in migration on tax revenues, demands on social security demands, earnings, and/or pension viability.
• ‘Oddities’; the impacts on certain unique positions the UK has in the world, e.g. Renminbi trade, Lloyds of London, or other
• ‘Comparators’. What are the impacts on pensions, insurance, if the UK would move towards a Norwegian, or Swiss model relationship with the EU?

The EU working party would like to involve IFoA members in this important debate. During these meetings, the attendees group can firstly receive information about the latest state of EU-play, and then discuss and raise its priority issues and key concerns. These will be taken back by the EU working party and considered for further action.

The IFoA would like as many of members’ input and thinking about possible consequences from an actuarial point of view. This will help the IFoA craft research, information and messages that will be beneficial to the public interest.