Tag Archives: Europe

50 years ago today: Britain applies for membership in the EEC

20th century, Humanities, Modern, Social Sciences, Spotlight, , ,

Although the United Kingdom didn’t join the European Economic Community until 1 January 1973, Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government had applied to join the group as early as 10 August 1961.

Ted Heath, then Lord Privy Seal and charged with EEC negotiations, spoke to the assembly at Brussels in August 1961:

“These discussions will affect profoundly the way of life, the political thought and even the character of each one of our peoples… The British Government and the British people have been through a searching debate during the last few years on the subject of their relations with Europe. The result of the debate has been our present application. It was a decision arrived at, not on any narrow or short-term grounds, but as a result of a thorough assessment over a considerable period of the needs of our own country, of Europe, and of the free world as a whole. We recognise it as a great decision, a turning point in our history, and we take it in all seriousness. In saying that we wish to join the EEC, we mean that we desire to become full, whole-hearted and active members of the European Community in its widest sense and to go forward with you in the building of a new Europe.”

(Address given August 1961, requoted in address given 29 January 1963 at the 17th ministerial meeting between the Member States of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the United Kingdom, a draft version of Heath’s 1963 speech forms part of the Edward Heath archive, which was acquired by the Bodleian Library earlier this year and will be available to readers following cataloguing (see story and image of Heath’s notes)

The front page of the Weekly News Letter (August 1961; PUB 193/17)

The United Kingdom’s membership in the EEC/EU has sparked much debate and discussion over the years. Its initial application was part of Macmillan’s efforts to develop fresh policies for the Conservative Party; the application “acknowledged that Britain’s standing as an independent great power, and its emphasis on empire, were all but over, which were bitter pills for the right to swallow.” (Seldon and Ball, 1994, p. 51).

However, this first bid was unsuccessful; it was officially and harshly vetoed by French President Charles de Gaulle in 1963 and again following the United Kingdom’s second application in 1967; de Gaulle claimed that Britain displayed a distinct “lack of commitment” and refused very publicly to countenance the union. In a public statement in January 1963, he said:

“She [Britain] did it [asked to join] after having earlier refused to participate in the communities we are now building, as well as after creating a free trade area with six other States, and, finally, after having — I may well say it (the negotiations held at such length on this subject will be recalled) — after having put some pressure on the Six to prevent a real beginning being made in the application of the Common Market. If England asks in turn to enter, but on her own conditions, this poses without doubt to each of the six States, and poses to England, problems of a very great dimension … In short, the nature, the structure, the very situation (conjuncture) that are England’s differ profoundly from those of the continentals.”

(Press conference held by General de Gaulle, 14 January 1963; Audio version available in French)

European Policy (a paper by the Conservative Research Department outlining possibilities and policies for another EEC entry attempt; LCC 1/2/17)

It was only after a change of power in France and the further negotiation of the EEC’s agricultural policies that the United Kingdom’s bid was finally successful (along with those of Ireland and Denmark), and the nation was welcome into the EEC on 1 January 1973, under the premiership of Ted Heath.

February 1986: European Integration Moves Forward

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Convinced that the European idea, the results achieved in the field of economic integration and political co-operation, and the needs for new developments correspond to the wishes of the democratic peoples of Europe, for whom the European Parliament, elected by universal suffrage, is an indispensable means of expression…

[Preamble to Single European Act]

Leadership is what is required in the Community. The leaders of the Ten must agree upon the direction of the Community in a spirit that wields and transcends individual national self-interest. Let us raise our heads above the petty squabbles of the past and lead the Community into new enterprises and fresh ventures, for the sake of both ourselves and the Community.

[Ted Heath, Europe – The Next Ten Years, at Conservative Group for Europe Annual Conference, March 1984 (IDU 32/2)]

By the early 1980s, discontent and frustration were growing among the member states of the no-longer-fledgling European Community. The Treaties of Paris and Rome in the 1950s had set the integration ball rolling, but barriers remained and made economic movement difficult.

Captain Europe attempts to educate British voters about the European Community

A number of camps formed among European nations to discuss future changes (including the famous Crocodile Club and Kangaroo Group). At the same time business pressures grew; Jacques Delors took office as president of the European Commission, making his primary purpose work towards a single market. Negotiations between member states began to create pressure to work towards an agreement.

In 1984, the member states gathered at Fontainebleau (see photo of the Heads of State at the Fontainebleau Summit of 25 and 26 June 1984) and commissioned the Dooge Committee to research the issue, and a white paper on the completion of the European Market was presented by Jacques Delors and the Commission to the European Council in 1985 (see also the House of Commons discussion of the report).

The ten leading member states convened in Milan in June 1985 to discuss a possible treaty. Consensus proved difficult, however, as many of the member states had severe misgivings about proposed changes. Britain, as a traditionally hesitant member, was unwilling to accept any stipulation that might prevent a nation from protecting its own interests.

Despite misgivings from a number of nations, a conference was convened and the text of the Act was finished in December 1985. A complicated signing process followed, including national referendums in Denmark and Ireland; the Act came into force on 1 January 1987.

The Act itself set out one of the most important provisions of today’s European Union: the European single market. In order to make way for the establishment of a single market by 1992, the Act touched upon the movement of refugees, tax barriers, VAT rates and other important elements to establishing a free trade area, and it institutionalized European monetary policy. The Act didn’t limit itself to finance and trade issues, however, and it set out goals for European social cohesiveness. The Act also established the European Court of First Instance, which would act as a filtering court and take some of the workload from the Court of Justice. To make these changes (and future decisions) work smoothly, the Act set extended Qualified Majority voting.

As Jacque Delors summarized:

The Single Act means, in a few words, the commitment of implementing simultaneously the great market without frontiers, more economic and social cohesion, an European research and technology policy, the strengthening of the European Monetary System, the beginning of an European social area and significant actions in environment.

[From Europa]

European Conservative Brief, January 1988 (CCO 508/11/60)

Not everyone was thrilled with the Act. Although the provisions it made were monumental, Thatcher herself called its impact ‘modest‘. Indeed, it was a modest version of the original; negotiations had been forced to make it palatable to all member states. But it set the Community on its way; by 1992, a huge number of barriers had been removed, and the member states signed the Maastricht Treat, setting out goals for the European Monetary Union.

That did not stop the UK’s Conservative Party from shifting to what Margaret Thatcher called a Eurosceptic stance in the late 1980s. In September 1988, Thatcher gave what is now called her ‘Bruges Speech‘ to the College of Europe. She affirmed: ‘Britain does not dream of some cosy, isolated existence on the fringes of the European Community. Our destiny is in Europe, as part of the Community.’ At the same time, however, she passionately declared:

To try to suppress nationhood and concentrate power at the centre of a European conglomerate would be highly damaging and would jeopardise the objectives we seek to achieve …Europe will be stronger precisely because it has France as France, Spain as Spain, Britain as Britain, each with its own customs, traditions and identity. It would be folly to try to fit them into some sort of identikit European personality.