A Study On The Labor Government And Britain’s Second Application To The European Economic Community1964-1967

This paper mainly discussed the transition from "not supporting" and "ambivalent attitude" to "actively supporting" on Britain’s application to European Economic Community in1964-1967, in which period; the Labor Government was led by Wilson.The article analyzed the reason for promoting Wilson’s change of Britain’s application to EEC from both internal and external factors. The internal factors included the relationship changing between Britain and the Commonwealth, the challenge from Ted Heath and the Tory Party, the Britain public attitude to apply to EEC. The external factors included changes in Anglo-American "special relationship", the relationship of the UK and France, the attitude of five friendly countries. By the combined effects of these factors, Wilson was increasingly clear attitude towards the British application to join the EEC, and ultimately personally visited and proactively contacted with the EEC members. However, Britain’s second application to EEC led by Wilson still failed because De Gaulle’s France vetoed British entry. The paper concluded that Labor Government’s application to EEC led by Wilson was influenced by multiple efforts. In contrast with the Britain’s first application to EEC led by Conservative Party, there were many differences in terms of political background, economic background. Although Wilson’s government had paid amount of efforts, the application ultimately failed because of the rejection of De Gaulle’s France. The main reason, on the one hand, mainly due to the individualism of De Gaulle’s. On the other hand, Charles de Gaulle was not satisfied with the Britain by the way of negotiations to join the EEC. The Labor government in this case ended in failure, but it established a good foundation for Britain’s eventually joining EEC. By the second application, Britain also realized that for Britain’s better development, it would be a wise move to join to EEC.