1973 saw the first wave of enlargement of the European Community following on from the Hague Summit. This was preceded by the Luxembourg Prime Minister, Pierre Werner’s proposal for Europe’s economic and monetary union in 1970 known as the Werner plan.

The 1970s saw an end to post-war boom amidst the collapse of the Bretton Wood’s system, maturing European economies, the oil Crisis of 1973, and disaffection at US leadership due, in part, to the protracted Vietnam War.

There has been periodic enlargement of the European Communities and later European Union since 1973. Britain and closely linked economies of Ireland and Denmark joined. Britain joined in the context of diminished global standing, economic slow down, and international economic instability.

See below, Prime Minister Edward Heath delivering a speech at a banquet celebrating Britain’s entry to the European Economic Community in 1973: