The Relationship Between Britain and the European Union

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Relationship between EU and Britain.

The European Union formed after long years of negotiations and meetings between member states of Europe because of common interests and goals on economic, social, and foreign policies. To maintain the Union as a group, it has gone through many alterations in its policies like increasing the legislative power of the European Parliament, increasing its member states and many treaties like Treaties of Rome, Maastricht Treaty have been signed to control the governance of the EU. The EU has provided stability, peace, and prosperity for its European members. But as the EU has grown and become powerful and has stepped towards supranational government, the national sovereignty and the right to veto has come under threat. One of the largest and powerful members of the EU, Britain, is very cautious about its intergovernmental approach. David Cameron has indicated that there would be a referendum on the UK's membership and it is feared that more than half of the UK's citizens would vote to pull the UK out of the EU. The relation between EU and Britain has never been ideal. Since the British have ruled the world for many centuries, they still feel somewhat superior to other European countries. But when Britain’s economy declined, while the Community members flourished economically, Britain joined the community for economic reasons, not for political reasons. Thatcher's policy towards European Integration is rather aggressive as seen in her Bruges Speech in 1988 and her stubbornness to not give away nationalism, has set the current British policy towards the European Union; but leaving the Union is not ideal for both United Kingdom and the European Union from both a political and economic point of view....

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Academic sources:

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