UK First and Second Petition For Membership in EU

The British encountered many problems in joining European Integration because they were seen as close allies of the USA. It provoked fears in the other members of the EEC because they wanted to keep some independence from the USA, especially France. The decision of the USA, backed by the UK, in accepting the division of Germany into two parts, alienated the British from West Germany. It meant the hidden support of Germany in favor of the negative position of the French towards the UK in this matter. On the other hand, other member states were interested in the UK’s being inside the Community, because they, especially the Netherlands, had important economic links with the British, but their influence could not stand up to the French rejection. Other supporters of British membership were important figures linked to European integration, such as Jean Monnet, the so-called “Father of Europe”, but they could do nothing against the combination of French and German positions. France had many reasons for rejecting the British application.

first, the leading position of France inside the Communities as its main political actor. The Second World War was still recent and Germany was willing to cooperate with international partners as a show of their good faith. The inclusion of West Germany in the European Communities was a big step in rehabilitating this state in the international arena. The other member states, such as the Benelux countries and Italy, did not have the power to challenge the French position. So France was the leading political force of the Communities, a position that could be in danger with another heavyweight partner, such as the UK, inside the Community.

On the other hand, British economy had important ties with the Commonwealth, an organization that included many former British colonies (see Fig. 1). It was not compatible with the European market because of the system of Imperial Preference on trade within the Commonwealth that gave practically free access to the British market to products of the members of the British Commonwealth. The accession of UK to the European Communities included the British economy inside the European market; the imperial free access would have expanded to the whole European market because there were no internal borders. So this system needed to be changed against the will of the British, who still hoped to keep some influence in world politics via their Commonwealth. This problem also had an influence on the relations of the Communities with its former colonies via the Lomé agreements; of all the members of the European Communities, only France had ex-colonies of importance. France was using these agreements to keep its influence over these territories, and including the numerous British ex-colonies in the Lomé agreement could mean the end of French influence.

Finally, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was still under discussion, without its final shape, and the French government was concerned with the UK changing the rules of this policy because the British agricultural sector was very different from that of France and had other needs. Even today, the idea is still clear that when a country joins the European Union it has to accept the whole of it, it cannot join some parts of the Union and leave aside others. Once the country is a member, it has two possibilities to influence the development of European policies on the common ground of the European institutions—reject new policies unless they fit the country’s wishes, or sign a special protocol that leaves the given country outside this new policy. As France needed the CAP because of internal reasons, they could not accept British membership until this policy was approved by the Communities. As is the case in any enlargement, even today all member countries need to arrive at agreements, hence unanimity is required, which in reality means that each member state has the right of veto; Charles de Gaulle rejected the application of the UK twice because it was opposed to French interests. Therefore, neither Denmark, Ireland nor Norway, which had applied commonly with the UK, were accepted into the Communities. Eventually, the third application was accepted when Pompidou was president of France after the retirement of de Gaulle and the final approval for the CAP.