History of European Union–United Kingdom relations History of European Union–United Kingdom relations Since the foundation of the European Communities, the United Kingdom has been an important neighbour 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). 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
European Economic Area idea of the EEC enlarging with more member states, as he feared that it would impede the ability of the Community to complete the internal market reform and establish the monetary union. Delors proposed a European Economic Space (EES) in January 1989, which was later renamed the European Economic Area, as it is known today. By the time the EEA was established, however, several developments hampered its credibility. First of all, Switzerland rejected the EEA agreement in a national referendum on 6 December 1992 obstructing full EU-EFTA integration within the EEA. Furthermore, Austria had applied for full EEC membership in