Basic HTML Version
Wi/1Sbe Enter
tbeCommon
Market?
Britain's
Fateful
Decision
Never
have the British people laced a
more
dillicult choice
-
to ¡oin or
not
to ioin the
Common
Market. Heated debate
lills the
nation's
lamed
pubs
and its sharply opinionated
newspapers. More ol the
same
is expectecl in Parliament
this
autumn,
belore the final decision is reached.
by
Gene H. Hogberg
"IF
WE LET
this opportunity slip,
then we must not think that it
is going to lie around, waiting
for us to pick it up again - because it
isn't !"
With those words, Britain's Prime
Minister Edward Heath voiced bis Gov–
ernment's firm resolve to take the Brit–
ish nation into the rapidly growing
power center of Europe's Common
Market.
This time, unlike 1963 and 1967, the
Commoo Market has opened the door
to London. There is no longer a veto–
casting De Gaulle standing in the way.
Now it's all up to Parliament. And the
historie vote is due later this month.
Why
Britain Seeks Membership
Why is Britain, mother of the 31 -
member Commonwealth, seekiog to
enter the Common Market -
oc
European Communities, as the six-
nation grouping is officially called ?*
Tbere are three basic reasons. First is
the declining importance of tbe Com–
monwealth itself, both ecooomically
and politically. Second is the growing
British fear of what a powerful, united
Europe would ultimately become with–
out British inAuence and direction. And
lastly, is the desperate need for a new
national goal for the British nation,
shorn of empire and nearly stripped of
the Commonwealth.
During recent years Britain's trade
with fellow Commonwealth members
has steadily declined. Britaio now
exports more to the six-nation Common
Market than she does to the Com–
monwealth. Britain, furthermore, is im–
porting less from her traditional trade
partners. For highly developed Com–
monwealtb nations such as Canada and
Australia, trade with the United States
and the rapidly growing Japanese mar-
ket has become and is becoming more
important than trade witb tbe Mother
Country.
Because of this, as well as constant
poütical frictions within the multi -racial
Commonwealth, Britain's political lead–
ers have come to believe that the future
of their country lies
first
with continen–
tal Europe, and ooly secoodarily with
the worldwide Commonwealth. This
shift in orientation, of course, represents
a dramatic 180 degree reversa! of tradi–
tional British foreign policy. The Brit–
ish have never considered themselves
"Europeans" in the continental sense of
the term. According to an old proverb:
"Britain is
in
Europe - but not
of
Europe."
Advocates of membership believe
Great Britain would beoefit economic–
ally by joining the EEC. "A Britain that
stays outside Europe's potential market
• France, West Germany, Italy, Netherlands,
Belgium and Luxembourg are all members
of three co-extensive entities - the European
Coa! and Steel Cornmunity, formed in 1951 ,
and the European Economic Community and
Euratom, both of which carne into existence
on January 1, 1958. The most signi.ficant of
the three is the E.E.C.--or the Common Mar–
ket - which is still the most commonly used
term
for
the six-nation bloc. But "European
Communities" -
oc
"European Community"
- is gradually gaining popular acceptance.