Sheffield is now facing the 21st century with a confidence that it has not known for generations. The new elegance and sweep of the city renewal, the attractiveness of South Yorkshire for foreign investors, the growing international reputation of the two universities, and the renaissance of theatre, opera and arts in Sheffield is putting the city and the region on the European map.

The Sheffield Europe week that opens today is part of the new confidence and style of Sheffield. In London, the metropolitan elites fret and sweat about Europe. In Sheffield, people get on with the real world of which Europe is now of growing importance.

It is not just the hundreds of millions of pound from EU funding that has helped renew the local economy. Let us welcome that but never forget this largesse was the result of Sheffield and South Yorkshire becoming so poor as a result of economic policies in the 1980s and 1980s, the region became eligible for European funding.

Now Sheffield and South Yorkshire are back at work with a job created every three minutes since 1997. Britain is no longer the poor relation of Europe but a leader in job creation and facing up to the challenges of the global economy.

Nearly two centuries ago Sheffield gave birth to the great movement to reform the Corn Laws – the protectionist racket ran by rich land-owners that denied the benefits of access to the international economy and the cheaper corn from other countries to the workers of Sheffield and the new cities of the industrial revolution.

Now Sheffield has to lead a new campaign to defeat the isolationist forces with mammoth financial resources behind them which want Britain to say No to Europe.

 Let us, for a moment, enter the world of those who want us to say No to Europe and turn our backs on this market of 450 million people to whom we must sell our made-in-Sheffield goods and services.

The million passengers Jet2.com carried from Yorkshire to EU destinations last year would find themselves having to pay top ticket prices as the state airline system would not be obliged by EU rules to accept Britain’s low-cost airlines.

The four weeks’ paid holiday that every South Yorkshire worker enjoys as a legal right under the EU would disappear.

Buying a holiday flat in Spain or Portugal would become considerably more difficult.

Companies in non-EU Norway and Switzerland have to fill in a 12 page form with 50 questions on each page in order to export a product or sell a service to the EU. Do we want that extra paperwork in Sheffield by saying No to Europe?

And think of the wider benefits. As a boy I holidayed in Ireland. Then Ireland was a poor country whose menfolk had to emigrate to find work. Today Ireland, thanks to EU membership is a rich country of immigration. Immigration brings it own problems as we know but it is far better to live in a nation like America or Britain or Ireland which needs immigrant workers than in a country so poor its people have to leave to find work.

As a young man I worked for freedom in the then fascist nations like Spain and Greece or the communist dictatorships of Poland and Czechoslovkia. All those countries enjoy freedom and democracy now anchored in membership of the EU.

President Bush has been visiting Europe this week to make the case for a partnership between what he calls “a strong Europe” and the United States.

The Europe of the No camp is a Europe of divisions, of conflicts, of rejection of the international rules laid down in the new constitutional treaty.

Like the Corn Law protectionists, the new isolationists want Sheffield to turn its back on Europe and Britain to be marginalised on the sidelines of the new Europe of  democracy, economic possibilities and social justice that is slowly being built.

I will enjoy going from stall to stall in the European market in Fargate next weekend. The smell of garlic and pungent cheeses, the mountain dried ham, the hot and chocolate pancakes will make Sheffield think about why Europe is good for this city. And our visitors from Europe will see a new Sheffield, a confident Sheffield and a Sheffield rightfully taking its place as major city in 21st century of Europe.

It is time to say to the No camp, Non Merci! We are British and we are in Europe and that is how things will stay.