EU History

In 1993, the European Common Market trade agreement became the European Union to form a governing body to implement UN Agenda 21 and begin to form a global government based on the global warming hoax. This was a Marxist scam designed to usurp national sovereignty and remove European voters from the legislative process. The UK retained the right to call for a popular vote by its citizens to remain in the EU or exit. The vote in 2016 was to exit the EU.

History of European Union–United Kingdom relations
EU roots and British accession 1957–1973
 
Referendum of 1975 - United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum, 1975
From Referendum to Maastricht Treaty 1975–1992.
 
Maastricht Treaty and Referendum party -Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990, amid internal divisions within the Conservative Party that arose partly from her increasingly Eurosceptic views.
 
The United Kingdom was forced to withdraw from the ERM in September 1992, after the pound sterling came under pressure from currency speculators (an episode known as Black Wednesday). The resulting cost to UK taxpayers was estimated to be in excess of £3 billion.
Role of UKIP 1993–2016 - The UK Independence Party (UKIP), a Eurosceptic political party, was also formed, in 1993. It achieved third place in the UK during the 2004 European elections, second place in the 2009 European elections and first place in the 2014 European elections, with 27.5% of the total vote. This was the first time since the 1910 general election that any party other than the Labor or Conservative parties had taken the largest share of the vote in a nationwide election. UKIP's electoral success in the 2014 European election has been documented as the strongest correlate of the support for the leave campaign in the 2016 referendum.
 
Controversy on the European Court of Human Rights in 2013 - The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was drafted in 1950, largely under British leadership and its court (ECtHR) was established in 1953. EU institutions are bound under article 6 of the Treaty of Nice to respect human rights under the Convention, over and above for example the Law of the United Kingdom. The Court was criticized especially within the Conservative Party for ruling in favor of British prisoners obtaining the right to vote. During the referendum the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, had called for the UK to leave the ECHR
Euroscepticism 1993–2016 -See also: Euro-skepticism in the United Kingdom
Opinion polling 1993-2003 – Since 1977, both pro- and
Brexit 2017–2019 - See also: United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Since the foundation of the European Communities, the United Kingdom has been an important neighbor and is currently a major member, until its withdrawal.

The UK was not a signatory of the three original treaties that were incorporated into what was then the European Communities, including the most well-known of these, the 1957 Treaty of Rome, establishing the European Economic Community (EEC).

Britain first began talks to join the EEC in July 1961. The UK's applications to join in 1963 and 1967 were vetoed by the President of France, Charles de Gaulle, who said that "a number of aspects of Britain's economy, from working practices to agriculture" had "made Britain incompatible with Europe" and that Britain harbored a "deep-seated hostility" to any pan-European project.

Once de Gaulle had relinquished the French presidency in 1969, the UK made a third and successful application for membership.

The question of sovereignty had been discussed at the time in an official Foreign and Commonwealth Office document. It listed among "Areas of policy in which parliamentary freedom to legislate will be affected by entry into the European Communities": Customs duties, Agriculture, Free movement of labor, services and capital, Transport, and Social Security for migrant workers. The document concluded (paragraph 26) that it was advisable to put the considerations of influence and power before those of formal sovereignty.

The Treaty of Accession was signed in January 1972 by the then prime minister Edward Heath, leader of the Conservative Party. Parliament's European Communities Act 1972 was enacted on 17 October, and the UK's instrument of ratification was deposited the next day (18 October), letting the United Kingdom's membership of the EC come into effect on 1 January 1973.

In 1975, the United Kingdom held its first ever national referendum on whether the UK should remain in the European Communities. The governing Labor Party, led by Harold Wilson, had contested the October 1974 general election with a commitment to renegotiate Britain's terms of membership of the EC and then hold a referendum on whether to remain in the EC on the new terms. 

All of the major political parties and the mainstream press supported continuing membership of the EC. However, there were significant divides within the ruling Labor Party; a 1975 one-day party conference voted by two to one in favor of withdrawal and seven of the 23 cabinet ministers were opposed to EC membership, with Harold Wilson suspending the constitutional convention of Cabinet collective responsibility to allow those ministers to publicly campaign against the government.

On 5 June 1975, the electorate were asked to vote yes or no on the question: "Do you think the UK should stay in the European Community (Common Market)?" Every administrative county and region in the UK returned majority "Yes" votes, apart from the Shetland Islands and the Outer Hebrides. With a turnout of just under 65%, the outcome of the vote was 67.2% in favor of staying in, and the United Kingdom remained a member of the EC. Support for the UK to leave the EC in 1975, in the data, appears unrelated to the support for Leave in the 2016 referendum.

Comparison of results of 1975 and 2016 referendums

In 1979, the United Kingdom opted out of the newly formed European Monetary System (EMS), which was the precursor to the creation of the euro currency.

The opposition Labor Party campaigned in the 1983 general election on a commitment to withdraw from the EC without a referendum. It was heavily defeated; the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher was re-elected. The Labor Party subsequently changed its policy.

In 1985, the United Kingdom ratified the Single European Act—the first major revision to the Treaty of Rome, without a referendum, with the full support of the Thatcher government.

In October 1990, despite the deep reservations of Margaret Thatcher, who was under pressure from her senior ministers, the United Kingdom joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), with the pound sterling de facto pegged to the deutsche mark.

As a result of the Maastricht Treaty, the European Communities became the European Union on 1 November 1993. The new name reflected the evolution of the organization from an economic union into a political union. 

As a result of the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on 1 December 2009, the Maastricht Treaty is now known, in updated form as, the Treaty on European Union (2007) or TEU, and the Treaty of Rome is now known, in updated form, as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (2007) or TFEU.

The Referendum Party was formed in 1994 by Sir James Goldsmith to contest the 1997 general election on a platform of providing a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU. It fielded candidates in 547 constituencies at that election, and won 810,860 votes or 2.6% of the total votes cast. It failed to win a single parliamentary seat because its vote was spread out across the country, and lost its deposit (funded by Goldsmith) in 505 constituencies.

In 2014, UKIP won two by-elections, triggered by defecting Conservative MPs, and in the 2015 general election took 12.6% of the total vote and held one of the two seats won in 2014.

It must be noted that neither the ECHR or ECtHR are formally part of the European Union, and are not connected to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The ECHR was drafted by, and the ECtHR is part of, the Council of Europe, of which the UK was a founding member in 1949. The UK was an independent signatory to the ECHR, 21 years before joining the EC/EU, in 1951.

In a statistical analysis published in April 2016, Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University defined Euro-skepticism as the wish to sever or reduce the powers of the EU, and conversely Europhilia as the desire to preserve or increase the powers of the EU. According to this definition, the British Social Attitudes (BSA) surveys show an increase in euro-skepticism from 38% (1993) to 65% (2015).

Euroscepticism should however not be confused with the wish to leave the EU: the BSA survey for the period July–November 2015 shows that 60% backed the option "continue as an EU member", and only 30% backed the option to "withdraw"

anti-European views have had majority support at different times, with some dramatic swings between the two camps. In the United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum of 1975, two-thirds of British voters favored continued EC membership.

The highest-ever rejection of membership was in 1980, the first full year of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's term of office, with 65% opposed to and 26% in favor of membership.

After Thatcher had negotiated a rebate of British membership payments in 1984, those favoring the EC maintained a lead in the opinion polls, except during 2000, as Prime Minister Tony Blair aimed for closer EU integration, including adoption of the euro currency, and around 2011, as immigration into the United Kingdom became increasingly noticeable. 

As late as December 2015 there was, according to ComRes, a clear majority in favor of remaining in the EU, albeit with a warning that voter intentions would be considerably influenced by the outcome of Prime Minister David Cameron's ongoing EU reform negotiations, especially with regards to the two issues of "safeguards for non-Eurozone member states" and "immigration". The following events are relevant.

From 2017 to 2019, UK has engaged in negotiating a Brexit between the European Union and herself. Between UK and EU, this Brexit would consist in a withdrawal agreement and a trade agreement, while at a global level this would/might also split various FTA. The withdrawal agreement is viewed by the EU as a "settlement of accounts" unrelated to the post-exit trade agreement, and viewed by the UK as a 'goodwill payment' to enable a fair post-exit trade agreement. In the event of a no-deal scenario each side will consequently have different views as to the validity of any payment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_European_Union%E2%80%93United_Kingdom_relations

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader