Yorkshire and Humber in Europe
With five million people, Yorkshire represents just over 1% of the population of the European Union.
But it's bigger than eight of the Member States: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Luxembourg and Ireland all have smaller populations. Denmark and Slovakia are about the same size as Yorkshire. As a region, we are smaller than Bavaria, but bigger than Wallonia, Catalonia or Macedonia.
We have our own voice in Brussels, electing our six MEPs as a region and sending representatives to the EU's Committee of Regions. The region's development agency, Yorkshire Forward, together with local authorities, maintain an office in Brussels (the "Yorkshire Embassy").
Our history is enmeshed with that of the rest of Europe. Yorkshire has been settled by Celts and Romans, Angles and Saxons, Vikings and Normans. The Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, who transformed the cultural history of Europe, was proclaimed Emperor here in York. We have welcomed waves of refugees from French Protestants to Irish navvies and Central European Jews. We have imported expertise from the Dutch who drained our marshes, to German businessmen who built Little Germany in Bradford.
Our modern context, too, is dominated by Europe - which affects us both as part of the UK and in ways specific to our region.
Europe is our biggest export market, to an even greater degree than is the case for the rest of Britain. Over two thirds of our exports go to our fellow European countries: that's £5.3 billion worth supporting over 300,000 jobs in our region. Over 1500 Yorkshire & Humber companies export each month to other EU countries.
There are also nearly 4,000 companies from elsewhere in the EU operating here, creating another 40,000 jobs. And nearly half of the tourists who visit our region come from the rest of the EU.
Like the rest of Britain, Yorkshire is affected by European legislation, when we agree with our neighbouring countries that it is advantageous to have Europe-wide laws.
Most of this concerns common rules for the common market: agreeing common technical standards to cut cost and red tape for businesses, agreeing common rules to protect consumers wherever a product was made, and so on. Most of our environmental laws are Europe-wide, reflecting the fact that pollution does not stop at frontiers.
Yorkshire receives European regional funding to help less prosperous regions. South Yorkshire has had the highest level of targeting ( "Objective 1") for several years, and much of the rest of Yorkshire has the next highest level of funding ("Objective 2"). Our rural areas receive Common Agricultural Policy subsidies, although recent reforms in the CAP means that more of this will go on helping the development of rural areas rather than on market intervention for agricultural products.
Yorkshire and the Humber is an important hub in European transport. The Humber estuary is one of Britain's main export highways to the continent. Most of Ireland's trade goes via Liverpool, the M62 and Hull to the North Sea ferries. Leeds-Bradford airport has more flights to Amsterdam than to London.
In recent years, Yorkshire 's universities have welcomed many thousands of students from European countries. Similarly, many of our students have spent a year abroad in the continental and Irish universities under the EU's ERASMUS student exchange programme.
Unfortunately in one area, Yorkshire has not done as well in Europe as it might. In the European Cup at football, teams from the North-West have been crowned European Champions on 7 occasions - but no team from Yorkshire has ever won the European Cup.
However, in rugby league both Bradford Bulls and Leeds Rhinos have been World Club Champions since the turn of the millennium while Yorkshire County Cricket Club remains one of the most famous sides in the world.