Anglo-German relations in the European Union, 1945-2019

Résumé du document

Ce document, complet et entièrement rédigé, traite en 12 pages des relations anglo-allemandes dans l'Union européenne entre 1945 et 2019.

Quelles sont les évolutions des relations politiques et économiques entre le Royaume-Uni et l'Allemagne au sein de l'Europe, après la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en 1945 et jusqu'au Brexit d'aujourd'hui ?

Nous aborderons d'abord la montée en puissance de l'Union européenne et les rôles respectifs de l'Allemagne et du Royaume-Uni dans l'intégration européenne. Dans la deuxième partie de cet essai, nous analyserons l'impact du Brexit sur les relations entre les deux pays.

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This fully written document deals with Anglo-German relations in the European Union between 1945 and 2019.

What are the evolutions of the political and economic relationships between the United Kingdom and Germany within Europe, after the end of World War II in 1945 and until today's Brexit? We will first discuss the rise of the European Union and the respective roles of Germany and the United Kingdom in the European integration. In the second part of this essay, we will analyze the impact of Brexit on the relations between the two countries.

Extraits

[...] However, Major did not manage to give this role to the United Kingdom: during the 1992 elections for the House of Commons, the Conservative party won with a slight majority only, so it gave more room for Eurosceptic people to gain power. In the end, it prevented John Major from having a real driving role in the Treaty of Maastricht. In the end, the United Kingdom remained quite distant from the European Union, while Germany kept being a leader in the European integration and political life. Besides, after the creation of the European Union, several other events fragilized the good relations between Germany and the United Kingdom. [...]

[...] Thus, Brexit has made relations between the two countries much more complicated. But did Brexit really changed how both states feel towards each other? Did politics within the European Union really had an impact on the more informal relations between Germany and the United Kingdom? To get a brief insight of this angle, we can use the results of a survey conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the British Councils: it studied the behaviors and opinions of young people among the G20 countries before and after the Brexit. [...]

[...] In the end, Brexit puts an end to a triangular relation between Germany, France and Great Britain. What is more, Brexit means that Germany will lost an important political ally within the European Union: during the last decades, Germany needed the United Kingdom's political support to establish its ideas in the European Union and make the other European leaders accept them, since the two country share the same kind of liberal political ideas. The strong links that the United Kingdom and Germany used to have within the European Union affect the way Germany reacts to Brexit, especially during the many negotiations that are taking place to decide the modalities of the United Kingdom's departure. [...]

[...] He is the actual British Minister of State for Trade and Investment. This long quotation proves his wish to stay close to Germany despite the Brexit: "There are few countries in the world that already share such a close economic relationship as Germany and UK. We are natural and long standing trading partners. Germany accounts for 13% of total UK imports - no other country in the world sells us more. That means around 1 in every 8 pounds spent in the UK on imports goes to Germany. [...]

[...] Gerhard Schröder felt strongly inspired and led an election campaign with the slogan, "New Center", which conveyed a bit of that "Blair feeling."" These two political changes thus led to new hopes for the Anglo-German relations, as the leaders from both countries now shared the same kind of ideas. However, despite very cordial relations between them, there were no actual improvements since they still did not really see the European Union in the same way. Indeed, Germany remained much more involved in the European Union than the United Kingdom was. [...]