14. The Communities were thus founded to ensure the peace prosperity of the six member countries and, as the preamble to the EEC Treaty stated, of any other European countries who wished to join them, by a gradual elimination of the economic barriers and differences which had divided them in the first half of the century and before. The member states retained their national institutions and identities, but established the institutions of the three Communities to formulate and administer common policies. At first, each Community had its own institutions, but in 1967 they were merged so that there is now one European Parliament, one Court of Justice, one Council of Ministers and one Commission or executive, whose members are nominated by the member states, though the staff of the Commission is in part recruited directly.
Development of the Communities
15. The communiqué issued after The Hague Conference of the Six in 1969 called for the completion, the deepening and the enlargement of the Communities. This would help them "to grow to dimensions more in conformity with the present state of world economy and technology". In the communiqué the members expressed their "common conviction that a Europe composed of states, which, in spite of their different national characteristics, are united in their essential interests, assured of internal cohesion, true to its friendly relations with outside countries, conscious of the role it has to play in promoting the relaxation of international tension and the rapprochement among all peoples, and first and foremost among those of the entire European continent, is indispensable if a mainspring of development, progress and culture, world equilibrium and peace is to be preserved."
16. Since the foundation of the Communities, their programme for the establishment over a twelve year transitional period of a common market with free movement of persons, goods, services and capital and the development of common agricultural and commercial policies has unfolded steadily. The cohesion of the Communities and the functioning of their institutions has been maintained, despite severe strains imposed on them by internal and external difficulties; and the influence of the Communities in the economic councils of the world has increased impressively, as has the prosperity of their members. The interests of each member state have been preserved and promoted, as well as the interests of the Community as a whole, so that there is no significant body of opinion inside the Six which is opposed to the Communities.
The United Kingdom's part in European developments
17. The United Kingdom participated in some of the European co-operative ventures which were started in the immediate aftermath of the war in Western European Union, in the Council of Europe, in the OEEC (now the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and above all in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. But the realities of our position in the world, and the similarities between our position and that of other Western European countries, were masked. Our physical assets
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