Id our economy had suffered less disastrously than those of most other Western European countries as a result of the war: nor did we suffer the shock of invasion. We were thus less immediately conscious of the need for us to become part of the unity in Europe, and we were preoccupied with the changes in our relationship with the countries of the Commonwealth.
18. For these among other reasons we were not ready to go as far and as fast as the other countries of Western Europe in the move for a more integrated European economy, though at this time we should have been welcomed as partners by all the Six countries, and the reserves of economic strength with which we emerged from the war would have given us a leading position in this development. During the 1950s the transformation of our position in the world was increasingly borne in upon us, in terms of recurring economic problems at home and in the balance of payments, of the quickening move to independence among former colonies, and of a sense of diminishing influence in world counsels. By the end of the decade the need to participate more closely in European economic integration had already become powerful. It had been thought from 1956 onwards that when the Community of Six came into existence it would be possible for other European countries which did not become members of this closer grouping to join with the Community in establishing a wider European free trade area. But although this plan had earlier secured the support of the Governments concerned, in 1958 it became apparent that the basis of general agreement did not exist. Subsequently, Her Majesty's Government, together with a number of other European countries who had not felt able to join the Community, established the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). From the outset EFTA had as its objective, not only the establishment of industrial free trade between the signatories of the Stockholm Convention which established the association, but the removal of trade barriers and the promotion of closer economic co-operation between all the members of the OEEC, including the members of the Community. From the outset, too, it was recognised that some members of EFTA might eventually wish to join, and others to seek closer trading arrangements with, the European Communities.
Negotiations with the Communities
19. In 1961 the Conservative Government decided to apply for negotiations to determine whether satisfactory arrangements could be made to meet the needs of the United Kingdom, of the Commonwealth and of EFTA. The statement to the Six introducing this application said that this decision was reached "not on any narrow or short-term grounds, but as a result of a thorough assessment over a considerable period of the needs of our own country, of Europe, and of the Free World as a whole. We desire to become full, whole-hearted and active members of the European Community in its widest sense and to go forward with you in the building of a new Europe ".*
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*The United Kingdom and the European Economic Community: Statement by the Lord Privy Seal, the right hon. Edward Heath, M P, at the meeting with Ministers of Member States of the European Economic Community at Paris on 10 October 1961. (Cmnd. 1565: November 1961.)
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