The aim of this essay is to present the reason of British government changing it's mind about EEC membership. The United Kingdom became a member of the European Economic Community in January 1973

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05645250                                                                                                                                                            Anna Luzinska

Anna Luzinska

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Name of the tutor: Dr Christoph Dartmann

Course code: H1 1011

Title of the essay:

“Discuss the reasons for the applications by several British governments to join the EEC?”

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“Discus reasons for the application  by several British governments to join EEC”

Introduction:

The aim of this essay is to present the reason of British government changing it’s mind about EEC membership.

The United Kingdom  became a member of the European Economic Community  in January 1973. However, its relationship with the European Community (EC) has been marked by strong national preferences and prolonged periods of weighing pros and cons of membership.

At the end of the Second World War, Europe was totally drained and exhausted. Age-old trade links had been cut off and any heavy industry or vital manufacturing that had not been destroyed was operating below capacity in a Europe that lay bruised and ill-prepared to deal with the millions of people made homeless both during and after the war. The continent was now relegated to playing a supporting role on the international stage owing to the increased might of the United States and the Soviet Union and the growing rivalry between those two countries. In this context, a divided Western Europe quickly realised that the path to its survival lay in working together and establishing effective, common institutions, if necessary with American financial, technical and military support. They were times of great political instability accompanied by heightened social tensions, and innovative diplomatic solutions were urgently needed, even at regional level. The debate on the status of Germany, where, from 1961, the division of Berlin was the symbol in Europe of the Cold War between the two World Powers, together with the inexorable decline in their overseas territories, made Europe’s dependence on external forces all the more striking. It was at this point that pro-European movements and supporters of federalism moved into action and vigorously promoted the idea of European unification. Closely associated with financial circles and demonstrating allegiance to a particular political tendency, or seeking, on the contrary, to mobilize the mass of public opinion, these movements, some of which resulted from the Resistance, established in 1947 an International Committee for the Coordination of Movements for European Unity. In May 1948, they also convened the Hague Congress, from which emerged the European Movement (EM), founded in Brussels on25 October1948.

So, in 1950, in a speech inspired by Jean Monnet, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed integrating the coal and steel industries of Western Europe. A a result, in 1951, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was set up, with six members: Belgium, West Germany, Luxembourg, France, Italy and the Netherlands. The power to take decisions about the coal and steel industry in these countries was placed in the hands of an independent, supranational body called the "High Authority". Jean Monnet was its first President. The ECSC was such a success that, within a few years, these same six countries decided to go further and integrate other sectors of their economies.

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Establishment EFTA

When the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was formed in the 1950's, Britain did not join due to political and economic reasons. First, the supranational characteristic of the Community did not appeal to the British elite and electorate. Second, European affairs were seen as irrelevant to the British public. Third, the consensus emerged that membership in the Community could weaken Britain's strong trading links to its Commonwealth countries.  In the late forties and early fifties British standards of living, British income per head, and strength of British economy had seemed greatly superior to those of most ...

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