CONFIDENTIAL
BRIEF NO. G.1 EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY
J
PART III
BACKGROUND NOTES:
GENERAL
Government policy was stated in The Queen's speech on
21 April, 1966 in the following terms:
2.
My Government would be ready to
enter the E.E.C. provided essential
British and Commonwealth interests
were safeguarded.
The main economic reason for wishing to seek entry was
advanced by Mr. Brown in the House of Commons on 16 November,
1966 as follows:
"If the prosperity of the country is to be assured, and
British industry is to plan for the expansion that is
fundamental to this, we must have a large market outside
of these shores,
a market to which we have immediate and
unrestricted access. We are a country of about 54
million people. Our membership of E.F.T.A. almost
doubles the size of that, to nearly 100 million. But
an expanded Common Market, which would include not only
ourselves and our E.F.T.A. colleagues and the Irish
Republic, but also those countries who are now members
of the E.E.C., would be a market of about 280 million".
History of probe
3.
In his statement in the House of Commons on 10 November,
the Prime Minister said that H.M. Government had conducted
"a deep and searching review of the whole problem of Britain's
relations with the E.E.C., including our membership of E.F.T.A.
and of the Commonwealth".
The Prime Minister went on:
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