The First European Community and the British Position

The Implications of the Departure of the UK for EU Social Policy

“…Margaret Thatcher, for example, was a vocal champion of the European single market, seeing its potential benefits for the deregulatory social policy reforms she was pursuing at home in the 1980s (Geddes, 2013). This also reflected her wish for the EU to be something more than a free trade area – free enterprise within the constitutional order of EU law was a key part of the Thatcher vision (Chochia et al , 2018: 133). Her allegiance was to a common market rather than the single market that later emerged (which involves much more power for the EU institutions and promotes top-down harmonisation) (ibid).…”

“…Margaret Thatcher was pro-Europe, but in her own fashion. Thatcher in particular feared the creation of the EU as a political entity, a European state with supranational power and institutions (including a bureaucracy), and favoured therefore a union among states rather than a European union (Chochia et al , 2018). She was influenced in this especially by the model of integration presented by the US, while also mindful of Britain's place in the world (Geddes, 2013).…”