In all the sound and fury about the EU, it's an argument rarely heard. One enormous, single market, underpinned by the rule of law, enhanced by the simple economics of specialisation and trade, and magnified by the wealth of some of the world's richest nations.

At least that is Tony Hague's view. Hague is managing director of an electrical engineering company at Walsall in the West Midlands. Over the last 10 years, he has transformed PP Electrical Systems from a largely domestic business to one which relies on Europe for much of its turnover.

"When I started, we had few overseas clients," Hague muses on the shopfloor after genial banter with a mostly female production line. "Today, 25% of our sales (£25m annually) are for direct export, and that number soars to 75% if you take into account that most of our goods are sold to British-based customers who sell on to foreign companies, mostly in Europe."

Ructions over the future of the eurozone bewilder Hague and business people he meets in Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt. "Our German friends smile because their newspapers are lambasting the UK for working against the euro, and some of our newspapers are putting the boot into the Europeans. Frankly, none of us give a flying monkey about some of the stuff going on between the politicians. What we really want is to do business and forget what the press are saying."

Amid the financial crisis swirling the chancelleries of Europe and the perennial backbiting about an uncompetitive economy suffering at the hands of cheaper labour in the east the economic premise for the EU is often lost: that over the past 25 years, the single market has made goods cheaper, labour cheaper, and trade more secure and more competitive. The knock-on effects are felt across the economy, from the jobs created and the cheaper costs of manpower to foreign direct investment that pours in from countries enticed by getting a foothold in the world's richest consumer market.For a company like PP, with 200 employees, the benefits are to be found in clients in Germany, Italy, France, Luxembourg and the Benelux countries. Hague says dealing with European partners, bound by the rules of the internal market, is a win-win for all concerned. "It's a breeze doing business in Europe," he says. "Paperwork is straightforward, there is lots of help and support. There are no trade barriers or customs issues, we have fewer problems shipping into Germany than we sometimes have shipping goods around the UK. EU legislation has simplified things enormously."

Hague doesn't like to talk about politics, but he has strong opinions about last year's summit when David Cameron vetoed an EU-wide treaty designed to stablise the eurozone.

"We've got to rebuild bridges. Europe is absolutely essential, it's vital to the UK as an export market. We can't afford to be a little island nation anymore."

Hague argues most manufacturing companies in Britain can't survive from selling to UK-orientated customers alone. Once thriving domestic sectors such as the motor industry, electronics, machine tools and a plethora of other manufacturing activities have either disappeared or shrunk.

"The UK manufacturers that remain are making goods that in the main – I would say around 90% – end up overseas, particularly Europe. That's the only way they can survive."

Hague thinks it would be "disastrous" if Britain came out of the EU because so many British manufacturing companies are dependent on Europe for business; anything that jeopardises that relationship risks threatening what remains of our manufacturing base, small though it is compared 30 years ago. "We can't afford to alienate Europe, we can't afford to be on the outside, we can't afford not to be involved in the decision-making process."

As much as Cameron wants to protect the City from EU encroachment, Hague doesn't think this should be done at the expense of manufacturing. He says Britain needs to nurture manufacturing, perhaps taking a leaf out of Germany's book where businesses, regional and national banks work together to support enterprises for the long term.

"People ask why we don't make things in the UK anymore and people respond that it's too expensive; but look at Germany, it's not a low-cost manufacturing nation, their overheads and social costs are higher than ours. How come? It comes down to one word: investment. They invest in automation, they invest in training, they invest in skills and they do it better. You don't go and buy a Bosch, an Audi or a BMW because it's the cheapest. You buy it because you know it's going to work in 10 years time and not let you down. German success is nothing to do with the low cost of labour."

Hague reckons it's too late to restore British industries which lost ground to foreign competitors over decades before fading into oblivion.

"But to generate real wealth for a nation, you have to cultivate a healthy manufacturing base. Today, that means protecting UK export markets, and no more so than our European ones."