UK Joins the EEC (1973): Britain Enters the Common Market

The United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community (EEC) on 1 January 1973, together with Ireland and Denmark. The accession ended more than a decade of failed attempts blocked by French President Charles de Gaulle, and it was achieved by Prime Minister Edward Heath. Britain’s membership of what later became the European Union lasted 47 years, until 2020.

Background: staying out, then asking in

When six continental states signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957, Britain chose not to take part. Its governments preferred looser free-trade arrangements, and in 1960 Britain helped found the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) with six other states. British trade was also still strongly tied to the Commonwealth.

By the early 1960s the EEC economies were growing faster than Britain’s. In August 1961 Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government applied to join, with Edward Heath leading the negotiations.

De Gaulle’s two vetoes

On 14 January 1963 de Gaulle announced at a press conference that France would not accept British membership. He argued that Britain, with its global trade links, Commonwealth ties and special relationship with the United States, was not yet ready to accept the Community’s rules and would change its character.

Harold Wilson’s Labour government applied again in May 1967. On 27 November 1967 de Gaulle signalled a second veto. Britain left its application on the table, and the change came only after de Gaulle resigned in April 1969. His successor, Georges Pompidou, was more open, and at The Hague summit in December 1969 the six agreed to open negotiations on enlargement.

Heath’s successful bid

Edward Heath, a committed pro-European, became prime minister in June 1970. Negotiations covered the Community budget, Commonwealth sugar and New Zealand dairy produce, and fisheries. A key breakthrough came at a meeting between Heath and Pompidou in Paris in May 1971.

On 28 October 1971 the House of Commons approved the principle of entry by 356 votes to 244. Sixty-nine Labour MPs, led by Roy Jenkins, defied their party to vote in favour. The Treaty of Accession was signed at the Egmont Palace in Brussels on 22 January 1972, and the European Communities Act received royal assent on 17 October 1972, making Community law effective in the UK.

The first enlargement

Ireland and Denmark had applied alongside Britain, since much of their trade was with the British market. Irish voters approved membership by about 83 per cent in May 1972, and Danish voters by about 63 per cent in October 1972. Norway also signed the accession treaty, but in a referendum in September 1972 about 53.5 per cent of voters rejected membership, so it stayed out.

On 1 January 1973 the Community grew from six to nine members. Britain marked the occasion with a festival of cultural events called “Fanfare for Europe”.

What membership meant in practice

Joining the Community meant accepting the existing body of Community law and policy, often called the acquis. Tariffs on trade with the other members were phased out over a transition period of about five years, and Britain adopted the common external tariff on imports from outside the Community.

The biggest changes affected farming and food. Britain moved from a system of cheap imports and direct subsidies to farmers towards the Common Agricultural Policy, which supported prices within the Community. Preferential access for Commonwealth producers was gradually reduced, with special transitional deals for New Zealand butter and Caribbean sugar.

Membership also brought institutional changes. British ministers joined the Council, British commissioners joined the European Commission, and British members were nominated to the European Parliament until direct elections began in 1979. Value added tax, the Community’s standard form of sales tax, replaced the old purchase tax in the UK in April 1973. The question of Britain’s net contribution to the Community budget became a long-running grievance, eventually settled by the rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in 1984.

Consequences

Membership remained contested in British politics. Labour returned to power in 1974 promising to renegotiate the terms, and the 1975 referendum produced a two-to-one vote to stay in. Debates over the budget, sovereignty and later the single currency continued for decades, and in the 2016 referendum 51.9 per cent voted to leave. The UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020.

Ireland and Denmark, by contrast, remained members. For Ireland in particular, membership brought large agricultural and regional funds and reduced economic dependence on Britain.

Timeline

• 1961, 9 August: Britain formally applies to join the EEC.
• 1963, 14 January: De Gaulle vetoes British entry.
• 1967, 27 November: De Gaulle signals a second veto.
• 1969, 1–2 December: The Hague summit agrees to open enlargement talks.
• 1971, 28 October: The Commons votes 356 to 244 in favour of entry.
• 1972, 22 January: The Treaty of Accession is signed in Brussels.
• 1972, 17 October: The European Communities Act receives royal assent.
• 1973, 1 January: The UK, Ireland and Denmark join the European Communities.

Why it matters

Britain’s entry in 1973 was the first enlargement of the European Communities and changed their balance of power and outlook. It also opened a long and often divisive chapter in British politics that ended only with Brexit almost half a century later.