United Kingdom official policy towards European economic integration, 1950-60

Abstract

The argument of this thesis is summarised at length in the Conclusion. In briefest terms it is that from 1939 to 1950 British political leaders found it expedient to give general verbal support to broad schemes for European integration while at the same time resisting any developments in this field which might have encroached upon the sovereign legal authority of Parliament or have impaired the "special relationship" of the United Kingdom with the United States as co-partner in the leadership of the West. From 1950 to 1960 this resistance took the form of repeated efforts to contain the progress 1'1 of the Community Movement in Europe. In 1960 the apparent triumph of the Community Movement, its endorsement by the United States and the displacement of the United Kingdom by Germany as the second economic power in the West led the British Government to join forces with what had become a successful rival for the "special relationship"