The United Kingdom's relationship with the European Community

Résumé du document

The United Kingdom's relationship with the European Community has always raised controversies, both on the British political scene and on the international stage. Not only has Britain refused to be one of the founding members of the ECSC in the 1950s, it has also confronted many difficulties when it opted to join it. When Prime Minister Macmillan recognized that it should become part of the Common Market, achieving membership was delayed because of the two French vetos in 1962 and 1967 and it was not until 1973 under Heath that the UK could join the EEC. However, as Peele states, even after becoming a member, Britain has never been 'seen as entirely committed to the European project'. The UK's 'imperial past', its relationship with the US and its sceptical attitude towards the integration process led to describing Britain as a 'reluctant', 'semi-detached' or 'awkward' partner of the EU. The notion of 'Europeanization' is however difficult to define, as it relates to a range of institutions, sectors and realities of British politics that cannot be fully listed here. Thus, let us consider that 'Europeanization broadly relates to the impact of the EU on its member states' that is, to the extent to which European integration has affected the institutions and politics in general in each country.

Extraits

[...] Even British political institutions and other bodies had to adapt to membership. Thus, it will be argued that although the UK may appear as a “reluctant” member and is in this sense maybe less “Europeanized” than other countries, one could not understand today the British political system without reference to European integration. Since the 1970s, Britain always held a particular position within the EC and is until now sometimes considered as being more reluctant to European integration than countries like France or Germany for example. [...]

[...] Oxford: Oxford University Press. King, A. (2007) The British Constitution. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 5 “Britain's Near Abroad”, pp. 91-114. Moran, M. (2005) Politics and Governance in the UK. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. [...]

[...] For instance, the Common Agricultural Policy was never really beneficial. The basis on which British contributions to the common budget were calculated penalized the UK as it conducted a big part of its trade outside the Common Market and had to pay levies on imported goods. The settlement of this problem did not occur until 1984 when Mrs Thatcher threatened to halt payments to the EC budget at the Fontainebleau summit (1998: 277). Eventually, even if by the end of the 1980s half of UK's total trade was with the rest of the EEC, this still represented a much smaller proportion comparing to other member states (1998: 278). [...]

[...] It other words, it refers to sets of changes that are coming over Britain, changes that are still in progress”. This is why at the end one cannot fully measure the real extent to which British politics has been precisely “Europeanized”. The influence of Europe is undoubtedly profound but this influence is continuously expanding and changing according to the context, and so is the “Europeanization” of British politics. Bibliography Bache I. and Jordan J. (eds.) (2008) The Europeanization of British Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. George S. (1998) An Awkward Partner: Britain in the European Community. [...]

[...] Indeed, as Rosamond (2003) explains, full understanding of British politics is impossible without a comprehension of the EU and Britain's place therein” (Bache and Jordan 2008: 33). British politics has undoubtedly been “Europeanized” as it had to adapt to the requirements of the EU. Firstly, there have been significant legal and constitutional consequences of UK's membership. Even before the country's accession to the EEC, the European Court of Justice asserted the primacy of Community law over domestic law of each member state in the case Costa v. ENEL. [...]