5. Should the United Kingdom withdraw from the European Union?
Background
The beginnings of what we know today as the European Union can be traced back to 1952, and the formation of the 'European Coal and Steel Community ' by the 'Inner Six ' founding member states. The ECSC was one of the first examples of a supranational union , designed to prevent the calamity of the two Great Wars from ever happening again. The ECSC later developed into the 'European Economic Community ' in 1967, before formally becoming the European Union (EU) in November 1993.
The United Kingdom officially became a member state of the European Economic Community (EEC) on the 1st of January 1973, having emerged considerably undermined from the Suez Crisis of 1956. The crisis highlighted the UK 's overreliance on the United States as its main ally, prompting the government to focus on forging economic alliances with its European neighbours as well, as opposed to maintaining its imperialistic approach to foreign policy. The UK 's initial membership to the EC was by no means plain sailing; in fact deep-rooted mistrust towards Britain by the French proved to be a major hurdle to overcome, as the first two applications were vetoed by the President, Charles de Gaulle. Once de Gaulle had left office, Britain 's third application was successfully accepted without opposition.
For the vast majority of the time since then, the UK has flourished in the EEC, and then the EU, benefitting from the increased trade
By the signing of the Treaty on European Union (TEU, formal for Maastricht Treaty) in 1992 and its entering into force in November 1993, the European Union was
Despite a blistering cold war between east and west Europe in the 1950’s, including the violent suppression of anti-communist protests in 1956 Hungary, the six founders of the ECSC reconvened in 1957 and signed the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Economic Community, or the “Common Market”.
The European Union (EU) is a political economic union of 28 members. The founders are France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy, Netherlands, and Germany. The Maastricht treaty established the European Union in 1993. The EU aims to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital and regional development. These 28 member states have successfully integrated because of their similar cultural lifestyles.
The Union initially developed from the European Coal and Steel Community Treaty by the founding countries which was signed in Paris in 1951. It was created for the free movement of coal and steel among countries with the free access to sources of production. The Treaty expired on 23rd of July 2002 (Europa.eu, 2010). This Treaty was very successful as it created better relationships between member countries, which lead the countries to sign the Treaty of Rome on the 25th of March 1957. The Treaty of Rome
Following WWII and during the Cold War, there was a sense of instability in Europe. To counteract this, many nations believed that a united Europe could suppress the intense nationalism and militarism that lead to both world wars. Other nations reacted with advocacy, protest or were simply equivocal. Post WWII Europe was extremely chaotic and disjointed. Alliances had been made and broken during the world wars, so tensions were at an all time high throughout the continent.
The European Union was initially set up as a means to terminate the conflict that occurred within Europe throughout the 20th century, culminating with the end of The Second World War (WWII) and The Cold War that followed. The EU ultimately aimed to bring the member countries together in order to form an ‘ever closer union’ between the countries of Europe, thus preventing a future battle. The Union started as the European Economic Community (EEC), which was established in 1957, and over the years endured numerous adjustments to form the politico-economic union that we know of today.
The issue of whether or not the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union has been debated heavily over the past decade, with the debate heating up even more from the current European Sovereign Debt Crisis. Recent polls of the UK population showed that around half of the UK’s citizens would vote to pull out of the EU if it went to referendum. However, after all of the economic, political, and social advantages of being a member of the EU are considered, it remains clear that leaving the EU is not in the UK’s best interest. Economically, it does not make sense for the UK
The European Union (EU) is the organization which integrates the countries listed below, both politically and economically. It is a customs union, which is an agreement amongst a group of countries to eliminate trade barriers between them on the movement of goods, services, labor and capital, and also to establish a common external tariff on goods and services coming into the union. The EU evolved from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which was formed in 1951 as a response to the First and Second World Wars to try to ensure future peace in Europe. This became the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1965, which in turn became the European
Whether the United Kingdom decides to join the European single currency and replace the pound with the euro will have profound economic as well as political effects on the country so is a very important decision and has considerable variations in attitudes towards the topic, although the British public opinion has consistently opposed joining the euro. The euro is currency shared by 18 of the European Union's Member States. The euro was introduced in 1999 and automatically became the new official currency of 11 States, followed by another 7 countries joining to date. However, the UK negotiated an opt-out to from the Treaty meaning they don’t have to adopt the common currency as they fit a certain criteria [1]. Joining the European single currency can have major advantages for the UK, such as diminished uncertainty of exchange rate for businesses and the decreased need to pay transaction costs of changing currencies when abroad. It can also have disadvantages such as loss of domestic monetary policy and variable rate debt in the UK.
The United Kingdom initially joined the European Union in 1973 for economic reasons hoping to promote trade and form relationships with other states in the Union. In 1975 the UK held its first national referendum on withdrawal from the European Economic Community. According to the poll,” 67 % of Britons voted to stay in the EEC and 32 % voted to leave the union” (GYE). Because of this result the UK stayed in the EU in 1975. Over the past 40 years the European Union has been through a lot of change, many more countries have joined the organization and the EU has extended its control over more aspects of daily lives. These changes have sparked a lot of controversy coming from both the UK public and
The UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973. When the EU was formed in 1993, the European Economic Community was renamed the European Community and added into the EU’s systems. There was never a formal vote on whether or not the UK should join the EU, but any sort of polling having to do with it yielded support for the movement.
The official line on Britain's non-entry being ,"we are not willing to make prior commitment to a scheme whose terms of membership are unknown. " This also underlines the fact that Britain wanted to continue 'as before' and thought it could, at the time Britain was producing about one half of the coal and steel in Europe. Right from the conception of the European union Britain has stood aloof from the union being very cautious and wary. From as far back as the creation of the European Steel and Coal Community in 1952 Britain has shown its unwillingness and reservations about joining Europe.
Britain has sacrificed power to treaties since the end of World War 2 in order for better relations with foreign countries, these treaties and others developed into what is now known as the European Union. Perhaps the most significant of these treaties is the Treaty of Rome (1957). The UK conceded to this treaty in 1972 and for the first time European Law was given power in the UK through an act of the UK
The roots of the European Union can be traced back to the early 1950’s when a small number of countries made a decision to join together as a way to resolve any potential conflict nurture economic growth and common values across the continent. There was a desire to promote common values and membership was opened to all European countries. Since the inception the number of members has grown from a founding six countries to what we now know as the modern day EU with a current total of 28 countries with a further 8 countries under application review. In 1992, what was then a group of twelve countries, joined together to form the Customs Community Code which was eventually introduced in January 1993. The code effectively merged the individual customs regulations in to a single customs union.
The start of Europe going towards a union had begun after World War II. The French gave an invitation to European countries served as the basis of a European Union. 9 countries have accepted the invitation: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. Then it expanded and increased by accepting European countries that want to join; Denmark, Ireland and the U.K. in 1973, Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986, and Austria, Fenland and Sweden in 1995. Now it has 28 countries.