CBI urges UK businesses to make themselves heard over 'Brexit'
Businesses should make their voices heard in favour of a reformed European Union, the president of the Confederation of British Industry said.
David Cameron has pledged a referendum on Britain’s EU membership by the end of 2017 but Sir Mike Rake told the BBC’s Today programme that there were "no credible alternatives" to EU membership.
"We need to remind ourselves that we're part of a market of 500 million people to which 50% of our exports go,” he said.
"Most businesses and governments want to see a reform that allows us to grow. Reforms can be made that we believe can improve our competitiveness without the need for treaty change."
On Wednesday, Rake will speak at the group’s annual dinner, where he is expected to tell businesses that it is time "speaking out clearly and in a language which people can understand".
"In the months to come, our country will have to make its own choice,” he is expected to say.
“A choice between openness and isolation, between shaping the future or retreating into the past.
"The question is not whether the UK would survive outside the EU, but whether it would thrive."
However, businesses were divided over the vote.
On Monday, John Longworth, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said 55% of the members were in favour of a “reformed Europe”.
His comments were not echoed by Lord Bamford, the chairman of construction equipment maker JCB, who said Britain had nothing to fear from exiting the EU.
"We are the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world. We could exist on our own - peacefully and sensibly," he told BBC Midlands Today.