The UK is set to have a referendum in 2017 on whether to remain a member of the European Union.

We’ll be focusing on the business issues around staying in or coming out at our next Big Debate, and discussing some of the following questions and issues:

• What does the EU have to offer businesses right now?
• What are the economic arguments for staying in/coming out of the EU?
• How does the EU need to change to improve growth, create jobs and enable businesses to flourish?
• Does the EU impose too many rules on business? Or does it protect business?
• Is it easier to sell goods in EU countries if we stay in? Does being in the EU help us to trade across the rest of the world?

Expect a lively and informative discussion with our keynote speakers Caroline Lucas MP and Daniel Hannan MEP.

Caroline Lucas has been the MP for Brighton Pavilion since 2010, when she became Britain’s first Green MP. She was re-elected in 2015 as the Green Party won their highest-ever share of the vote. She served as Leader of the Green Party from 2008 to 2012, and from 1999-2010 she served as one of the Party’s first MEPs.

Caroline Lucas says a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU is a vital opportunity to create a better, more democratic Europe:

“I support a referendum on our membership of the EU because I am pro-democracy, not because I’m anti-EU – and because I want to see a radical reform of the way Europe operates.”

Daniel Hannan has been a Conservative MEP for the South East of England since 1999, and is Secretary General of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists. He speaks French and Spanish, and loves Europe, but believes that the EU is making its member countries poorer, less democratic and less free.

Daniel will be making the case for why Britain would be better off, economically, outside the EU.

The debate will be chaired by Frank le Duc. Frank has been a journalist for more than 30 years. He runs Brighton and Hove News and presents The Vote, a politics and current affairs programme on Latest TV. He worked for the Financial Times and The Times before becoming the editor in chief of a series of regional newspapers.

Come and join the debate and make your views heard.

Include your question for the panel here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BigDebateEU