Right after the dignitaries, the first words of the 1957 Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (Treaty of Rome) read like this:
DETERMINED to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, …
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The United Kingdom refused to join at the beginning, then applied for membership in 1961, and was finally accepted as a member from 1973.
Time enough to read the first two lines of the treaty, I would think.
Ralf Grahn
Sunday, 28 June 2009
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As an Irishman, I am reluctant to speak up for the Brits but they are getting such a pummelling from you lately that I feel compelled to say something contrary.
ReplyDeleteIt's now 42 years since Rome, and there has been a lot of integration since. One might still, I suggest, be faithful to the spirit of the founding fathers while believing that we have moved together closely enough, at lest for a while.
Fergus,
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right, Britain has been a recurring theme. As a consistently awkward partner, which has done much to limit integration, and with a probable Conservative government promising to put it into reverse, the UK deserves much more discussion as a European problem than it gets.
My perspective is that of an EU citizen.
I hope your personal view of the suitable level of integration for now includes the Lisbon Treaty ahead of the second referendum.