The Origins of Britain’s Relationship with EU
The historical context
The UK's departure from the European Union did not begin out of nowhere; it had been a decade-long debate that began when the United Kingdom first joined the European Economic Community (now the European Union) on 1 January 1973. That was then called the European Economic Community.
Why did they not want to join at first
The UK had been invited to join the talks that later on made the European Economic Community in 1951. But the government did not engage in these talks. There were three main reasons why the British government didn't want to join the European Economic Community.
It didn't like the idea of supranationalism. where their power would be shared with Europe.
They feared that joining would weaken their trade and political ties to the Commonwealth.
The UK chose not to join because it preferred global trade links over European integration and wanted to maintain the international importance of the Pound sterling.
What changed there mind
But after the EEC was created in 1958, the political opinion shifted towards joining the EEC. The UK saw that countries in the EEC were experiencing faster economic growth, and the UK was falling behind. Being outside the EEC also meant Britain faced trade barriers, while members traded freely with each other. The British government saw that joining the EEC would have a greater benefit for the country to be in the membership than not.
Joining
In 1971, the UK parliament issued a document called the white paper, which was a document that said the UK agreed with the main terms of joining the EEC. So later that year, the UK parliament voted to join the EEC with 356 voting in favour, 244 against.
But the UK tried to join the EEC 3 times first 2 times they were rejected twice, primarily because of the French president Charles de Gaulle. But with his departure, the UK joined the EEC in 1973 along with Ireland and Denmark.
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