Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0055/00556.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 27KB | 478 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00556}
$Pretitle{405}
$Title{United Kingdom
Britain in the European Community}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC}
$Subject{community
european
council
member
britain
states
parliament
commission
economic
court}
$Date{1990}
$Log{}
Country:     United Kingdom
Book:        Britain in the European Community
Author:      Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC
Affiliation: Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC
Date:        1990

Britain in the European Community

Introduction

     Britain is an active and committed member of the European Community, an
association of 12 nations which also comprises Belgium, Denmark, the Federal
Republic of Germany, France, Greece, the Irish Republic, Italy, Luxembourg,
the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. It plays an influential role in the
Community's development and contributes fully to discussions in all its
areas of activity. Britain wants the Community to develop, to be economically
strong and more competitive in world markets, to influence the process of
change in Eastern Europe, to strengthen its links with its trading partners in
the wider world, and to promote European and Western values effectively.

     This pamphlet gives a brief description of Britain's entry into the
Community, sets out Britain's general approach to Community affairs and
examines British involvement in various Community policies.

Britain and European Unity

     After the second world war, the countries of Western Europe sought ways
of working together to reconstruct their economies and to organise themselves
in a way which would ensure that wars between them would not recur. Britain
and the Scandinavian countries favoured intergovernmental co-operation, and
this view prevailed when the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation
(OEEC) was set up in 1948 to administer the European Recovery Programme
(Marshall Aid). In 1949 the Council of Europe, also an intergovernmental
organisation, was created to discuss common political and economic problems.
It has 23 members, including Britain. Much of its work is in the fields of
culture and human rights.

     Some countries advocated an early constitutional plan for a federal
Europe and the replacement of nation states while others favoured functional
co-operation with new European institutions operating alongside nation
states. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), a supranational
authority, was established in 1952 to embrace the coal and steel resources of
Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the
Netherlands. Britain decided not to participate, but established a form of
association with the new body.

The Rome Treaties

     The foreign ministers of the six ECSC member states met at Messina in
1955 to consider economic integration, and set up an intergovernmental
committee to study the possibilities of co-operation over atomic energy, the
establishment of a common market, the creation of a European investment fund
and the harmonisation of pay and working conditions. Although a British
representative attended some of the committee's meetings, the British
Government had reservations regarding possible overlap with the work of the
OEEC, about the safeguarding of the interests of other countries which would
be affected by the moves, and about the supranational approach of the Six.
Britain did not take part in the final negotiations leading to the signature
of the Treaties of Rome in March 1957, which set up the European Economic
Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).

     Britain and six other countries belonging to the OEEC but not to the
European Economic Community formed the European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
in 1960. The signatories progressively dismantled the barriers to trade
between them in industrial goods, but maintained their own tariffs and
independent commercial policies towards the rest of the world.

British Applications to Join the Community

     The British Government hoped that progressively stronger links could be
established between EFTA and the Community. When it became clear that this
would not be possible, it began negotiations in 1961 to join the Community.

     In these the Government made it clear that it accepted without
qualification the aims of the Rome Treaty, including the elimination of
internal tariffs as well as the adoption of common customs, commercial and
agricultural policies.

     Negotiations were broken off in 1963 because of opposition from the
French President, General de Gaulle, since all applications required the
unanimous approval of existing members. A further application was submitted
in 1967 but it was not possible to reopen negotiations, because of the French
Government's opposition.

     Negotiations began again in 1970. Britain (and three other
applicants - Denmark, the Irish Republic and Norway) agreed to accept the
Rome Treaties and the decisions taken by the Community since their
implementation, and to solve problems of adaptation through transitional
measures and not by changes in the existing rules. Throughout the negotiations
Britain remained in close touch with its EFTA and Commonwealth partners. In
October 1971 both Houses of Parliament approved the terms of Britain's entry
by substantial majorities. The Treaty of Accession was signed in Brussels in
January 1972 and on 1 January 1973 Britain, Denmark and the Irish Republic
became members of the Community, Norway having rejected membership following
a referendum.

     The Treaty of Accession made arrangements for the progressive abolition
of tariffs and the elimination of quotas between the Six and the new member
states; the adoption of the common customs tariff and the Common Agricultural
Policy; provisions of fishing; the gradual liberalisation of capital
movements; an offer of special trading arrangements to developing Commonwealth
countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific; and the continued
importation of Commonwealth sugar and New Zealand dairy produce. The tariff
and agricultural pricing arrangements were to be introduced over a five-year
transitional period, while those for Britain's contributions to the Community
budget involved a longer period.

Renegotiation of Membership Terms

     A new Government took office in Britain in 1974 pledged to renegotiate
the terms of British membership and to put the issue to the British people in
the form of a referendum. Among its concerns were the system of financing the
Community budget, the costs of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the need to
improve access to the Community for imports from Commonwealth and developing
countries. At their meeting in Paris in 1974 the Community's heads of
Government agreed to set up a regional fund to correct economic imbalances
within the Community. At the heads of Government meeting in Dublin in 1975
agreement was reached on a `correcting mechanism' to ensure that budgetary
contributions did not bear too heavily on any one country. The first Lome
Convention, signed in 1975, established new trade, aid and co-operation links
between the Community and developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and
the Pacific. Changes were also made to the Community's scheme of trade
preferences for developing countries and to its overall development aid
policy.

     Following the Dublin negotiations, the British Government recommended
to the British people that Britain should stay in the Community. This
recommendation was endorsed by large majorities in both Houses of Parliament.
In the referendum held in June 1975, 67.2 per cent of voters supported
continued membership; about two-thirds of the electorate voted.

European Union

     The signatories of the Treaty of Rome declared themselves `determined to
establish the foundations of an ever closer union between the peoples of
Europe', an aim which Britain accepted on joining the Community in 1973 an