I don’t remember what great British figure (of rather recent history) said it, nor when or where – that’s why this is another question for my readers: can anyone clarify this to me??? – but I surely found memorable the following bolded quote.It is a politically incorrect but very likely explanation of why the Perfidious Albion was keen on being accepted into the EU, and had to endure the humiliation of rejection. In 1963 and 1967, London got a stinging ‘NO’ from Charles de Gaulle.
Some (historically isolationist) Brits may have opposed EU accession, others (mainly from the business community) may have been in favour of European Integration, in order to reap the benefits of taking part in the Common Market.
Yet there might have been another motivation at stake. A political one. According to what I’ve heard, a big reason for which Britain wanted to be part of the EEC (now EU) would not be so much a pro-Europe one, but rather an anti-France one:
“For the past hundreds of years, we’ve been getting into everything the French were part of, so that we could ruin it.” Whether this is but a joke or an anecdote, I seriously doubt that the Brits were really good at ruining the EU.
Successive British governments and various individual politicians may have put some (welcome or simply silly – that remains a matter of debate!) brakes on some European projects. However, have they ever truly wanted to ruin the EEC/EU?
[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]
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