1. University of Tirana
Faculty of Foreign Languages
Branch: English
Subject: British Studies
Lecturer: Iris Klosi
‘The effects of EC in the United Kingdom’
22.11.2010 Worked by: Sadiona Abazaj

2. European Union is the organization of European countries dedicated to increasing economic integration
and strengthening cooperation among its members. One of its most significant and powerful member is
United Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy in northwestern Europe, officially the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But how does this membership influence and shapes the United
Kingdom? What are some of the main effects of EC on this country?
Although Britain tried to minimize the impact of EC in the country, the membership had an effect on the
constitution, on the degree of democratic control of the executive, on the structure and functioning of
the national economy, and also on other areas of policy.
Firstly, when Britain entered the EC it become part of a new constitutional order that was based on very
different principle from those that governed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Britain prior to membership had no formal written constitution, whereas EC had the founding Treaties
to which has been added since 1987 the Single European Act. This documents act as a written
constitution against which the actions of the decision-making institutions and of the member states can
be judged. The body that sits in the judgment is the European Court of Justice. From the point of view of
compatibility with British Constitution principles, the most important doctrine, that was well-established
before British entry, was that Community law must take precedence over national law where there is a
conflict. A second aspect of the doctrine is the principle ‘the later law overrides the earlier’ or also
known as ‘no Parliament can bind its successor’, In other words, if two states come into conflict, the
Courts are obliged to give precedence to the law passed later in time. What is more, membership of the
EC has posed particular problems for the doctrine of the sovereignty of Parliament, because it has
introduced a category of law which, according to the interpretation of the European Court of Justice, is
more fundamental than statute, namely EC law. Now the United Kingdom lives under laws that are
made in Brussels as well as law that are made at Westminster. However many British parliament
remained reluctant to see the powers of the European Parliament increased, believing that this would
be the first step to reducing the status of Westminster Parliament. The reality is that EC had already
passed the point where complete democratic control could be exercised from Westminster.
Secondly, it has always been obvious that membership of the EC would have economic consequence for
Britain. Perhaps the most obvious economic effect of the membership was a change in both the
intensity and pattern of British Trade. By 1986, around half of Britain’s total trade, both imports and
exports, was with the rest of the EC. In comparison in the mid-1960, the states that today form the EC
accounted for less than 20 per cent of Britain’s total trade. At that time British trade still reflected the
legacy of Empire and Commonwealth links, with manufacturing goods representing only 44 per cent of
imports, but 84 per cent of exports. By the mid-1980s everything changed, manufactures still accounted
75 per cent of exports, but they also accounted 73 per cent of imports. What is more, changes in both
the geographical pattern of trade and its composition reflected membership of the EC. The removal of
tariffs increased the likelihood that Britain would both export more to and import more from the EC. But
in reality Britain was only a starting point for penetration of the rest of the EC. Furthermore as far as
Agriculture is concerned, the biggest difficulty for Britain to result from late entry to the EC was the

3. common agriculture policy. Food prices were a particular sensitive political issue at the time of the
membership applications and the referendum. The traditional British system was one of the deficiency
payments, in which food prices were allowed to find their own level, farmers were compensated for any
short fall in their incomes by direct payments from the government, while the system that had been
adopted by the Community was based on guaranteed prices. So on the one hand; if prices fell below the
agreed levels, the commission would intervene in the market to buy up surplus produce, on the other
hand if prices were above the level, subsidies were paid to farmers. The consequence was that farm size
increased and also British self-sufficiency in food increased. For the first time in history Britain became a
net exporter of grain.
Another issue that the EC has always concerned itself is the protection of the environment. But what
really happened was that the British government found itself in conflict with the EC on environmental
matters. The first disagreement was for the pollution of rivers. The Commission had proposed to the
Council of ministers that there should be maximum legal limits on the omission of pollutants into river,
whereas the British maintained that this was inappropriate for Britain, which as an island had faster
flowing rivers that cleared pollution more swiftly. The second incident that had an effect in Britain
concerned airborne pollutants where Britain was seen as major offender, because emission of noxious
gasses from its coal-fired power station were identified as a major cause of acid rain in north-western
Europe. Another issue that greatly concerned EC was the purity of drinking water. According to EC
Britain failed to achieve the required standards.
As far effects on social policy are concerned, the most obvious effect on social policy in Britain of
membership of the EC was in the field of woman’s rights in the workplace. In the 1960 women became a
more important part of the labor throughout Europe. Also measures were taken in the realm of equal
pay and of equal access for men and woman to employment, training, promotion. This led women’s
groups to adopt a more positive attitude toward the EC.
To conclude, membership of the EC brought more far-reaching consequence for Britain than were
anticipated when the applications were made. Despite the efforts of successive governments to limit the
effects of the membership, there was little room to adopt that British sovereignty had been diminished
by membership of the EC and that it would be diminished further.
The end