A COMMUNICATIONS problem with EU means British voters would not know enough about Europe in a referendum, business leaders in York have warned.

Even though the EU brings UK businesses enormous benefits through trade agreements and access to lucrative overseas markets, those advantages are often out-shouted by fears about immigration and bureaucracy, a group of politicians and business leaders said yesterday.

The city's Labour MP Sir Hugh Bayley hosted the gathering, along with Yorkshire MEP Richard Corbett, to find out what they and business bosses need to do to get the message out about EU membership - ahead of the Tory promised in/out referendum.

Businessmen at the meeting spoke of the boost their companies get from EU deals which open up new markets, both in Europe and, through trade deals, further afield. And the University of York treasurer David Dickson said the institution which employs 5000 people in York would struggle without the 24 percent of its students who come from Europe.

But Mike Cartwright, of West and North Yorkshire's Chamber of Trade, said that while most Chamber members want the UK to stay in the EU, they also want reforms to cut down European red tape.

Blandine Cassou-Mounat, Benenden Health's European Affairs Manager, said she believed the UK stood to benefit from EU membership in the negotiations over the proposed TTIP trade deal with the USA - as the EU has a much stronger hand than the UK would as a single nation dealing with the US.

The same questions about the benefits of EU membership are being asked in her native France, but the debate in Britain is more urgent because of the referendum, she added.

Sir Hugh ended the meeting by calling for action to make sure a referendum campaign does not go the same way as the Scottish independence vote - which saw public opinion sway drastically away from union against the economic and business arguments.

"A campaign for business, and run by business, would be much more effective than a campaign run by Clegg and Miliband," he said.

But City of York Council Labour leader Dafydd Williams added: "I don't want to see a referendum, because the last thing business wants is two years of indecision. But the best way to get some education about the EU is to have a referendum campaign.

"I have heard friends in Glasgow talking about the benefits of the Barnett formula and the West Lothian question - and you never would have seen that without the referendum campaign."