When Britain and France nearly married
January 15th, 2007 by Stephen
According to research from recently opened archives, the BBC reports that French Prime Minister Mollet considered a union with the UK, or joining the commonwealth and accepting the Queen as head of state.
That there is no trace of this plan in the French national archives suggests that Mollet thought better of his plan, perhaps after discussing with other French politicians, and being pursuaded of the major constitutional upheaval that would be necessary to change the head of state.
But as this all happened a year before France and Germany created the EEC, it is clear that there was an opening here, that could have radically changed the nature of politics in Europe over the last 50 years.
Astounding as these papers are, I suspect that a change of the French head of state was impossible. What *was* possible was the creation of a fledgling European Uninon on different terms to the one we have now. Possibly a union that would have been less bureaucratic and downright wasteful than the current EU.
Still, we are where we are. The EU is a sound idea – it just needs some hefty reform – particularly over the common agricultural policy, which is vastly expensive, inequitable and the source of EU dumping in the third world.
Interesting!
Can you explain what “European Union dumping in the third world” is?
Hi Mary,
This is the practice of overproducing agricultural produce such as butter or grain, through agricultural subsidies that encourage farmers to produce food that we do not actually need. As a result, the overproduced goods are given as aid or sold at a very low price in other markets. This has the effect of lowering the market price for the goods, so that producers in the third world, who do not benefit from the subsidy, cannot compete. They must either sell their own products at a loss or else not sell them at all.
Ahh. Thanks for the explanation. Kind of like the small American farmers who can’t compete with the big corporate farms who are slowly running mama and papa off the farm.