British Officials and European Integration, 1944–60

Abstract

This chapter analyses the changing attitudes towards European integration among British civil servants, from the end of the Second World War to the brink of the first application to join the European Economic Community (EEC). Particular attention is paid to key turning points in policy in 1948, 1950, 1955 and 1959–60. The main focus is on the three departments of State in Whitehall most concerned with defining the country’s European policy: the Foreign Office (FO), which was especially concerned with the political aspects of international developments; and the main economic ministries, the Treasury, responsible for financial issues, and the Board of Trade (BoT), concerned with commercial questions. The BoT’s importance declined somewhat in the 1950s, however, and attention will also be paid to the Ministry of Defence and Chiefs of Staff (important for military-security aspects), the Colonial Office, the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Prime Minister’s Office. It will be seen that, whereas European policy was primarily defined by the FO down to 1954, in the later periods the Treasury and, to a lesser extent, the BoT became predominant. The main problem with such an analysis is that it is frequently difficult to divorce the views of civil servants from those of their political masters. Fortunately the files of the FO in particular abound with minutes and memoranda by officials which contributed to, rather than resulted from, ministerial decisions.