Blair, the UK & the EU
- Created by: yazmintaylorx
- Created on: 06-05-18 10:19
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- Blair, the UK & the EU
- The question of the Euro
- UK/EU policy was dominated in the year 1997-2003 by the Euro question
- Blair was enthusiastic for British membership
- Brown was sceptical & insisted on 'five economic tests' to decide the issue
- the Euro was launched in 1997 without the UK
- by 2003, Britain had declared it would not join for the immediate future (or ever as of 2016)
- Other EU decisions
- Blair's govt., finally signed the social chapter of the Maas. Treaty guaranteeing work place rights
- Major's govt. had opted out of this part of the treaty in 1992
- in 1998 the European Human Rights Convention was also incorporated into UK law
- cooperated well with other EU countries / leaders on enlarging the EU to bring in new member states like Poland & Czech Republic
- Blair soured relations with France & Germany in 2003 by backing the US invasion of Iraq
- G. opposed to war & France used its veto in the UN
- technically made the invasion illegal under international law
- G. opposed to war & France used its veto in the UN
- Blair's decision to support Bush alienated his fellow European partners
- by enlarging the EU to 27 members it would make it harder to govern
- a new European 'constitution' was proposed in 2005 with kore central decision making
- this would have been unpopular in the UK
- Blair promised a referendum on the issue that he was almost certain to lose
- before that referendums were lost in Holland & surprisingly France
- thus no British referendum took place
- before that referendums were lost in Holland & surprisingly France
- Blair promised a referendum on the issue that he was almost certain to lose
- this would have been unpopular in the UK
- a new European 'constitution' was proposed in 2005 with kore central decision making
- in the same year, Britain and France clashed over the EU budget
- UK wanted to reduce subsides to farmers but French farmers benefitted from the CAP
- as a result President Chirac launched an attack on the UK's rebate negotiated by Thatcher in 1984
- a deal was eventually struck that would reduce farmer subsides in the long-term but cut UK's rebate
- several weeks after the EU budget clash, London was chosen over Paris to host the 2012 Olympics, a contest Paris was widely expected to win
- Was Blair a 'good' European?
- he did much to improve Britain's image in the EU after Thatcher & Major
- his electoral success made him an attractive & interesting figure to other European leaders & he worked hard to form friendships with them
- however, by 2007 it was evident that not much had really changed & a number of problems remained unsolved
- issue of Britain's membership of the Euro
- issue fo Turkey joining the EU
- EU budget & UK's rebate
- B's 'special relationship' with the USA & its undermining of a common European foreign & defence policy distinct from the USA & NATO
- issue of European govt. & the need for more efficient decision-making in an enlarged union of 27 countries
- The question of the Euro
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