Britain’s biggest business organisations will today urge David Cameron to secure EU reform.
Mr Cameron rejected Tory calls to publish his demands for reform as he prepares to open negotiations with European leaders this week.
And the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) will today come out in support of the Prime Minister’s strategy reports Daily Mail.
The organisation, which represents tens of thousands of firms, says the nation must not ‘sleepwalk into an ever closer union’ and should be freed ‘from the regulatory burdens imposed by the EU’.
British industry has traditionally been pro-union, but the BCC said its members now need real reform and urged the Prime Minister to fight for their interests.
In a letter to Mr Cameron, the BCC director general John Longworth writes that the UK is on the brink of ‘a defining moment for our country and for our future prosperity’ and cannot waste the opportunity.
It comes two days before Mr Cameron attends an EU summit in Brussels where he will unveil priorities for the deal he hopes to complete by the end of this year.
The British public will then decide if they are satisfied in an in/out referendum to be held by the end of 2017.
In his letter, Mr Longworth said: ‘Businesses understand that you will want to guarantee the sovereignty of the UK and to secure a settlement which takes into account the UK’s economic welfare.
‘If you do that, the tens of thousands of the businesses the BCC represents will be four-square behind you.