Enlargement and the European Commission: An assessment of the British and Irish applications for membership of the European Economic Community, 1958-73

Abstract

The thesis examines how the European Commission responded to the challenges posed by Britain’s and Ireland’s attempts to join the European Economic Community (EEC) between 1958 and 1972.1 The part played by the Commission in the enlargement process of the 1960s is one that has received little critical attention by scholars dealing with the history of European integration. Each chapter examines the enlargement question largely from the Commission’s perspective intertwined with British and Irish views. It therefore moves beyond the more traditional focus of scholarly research that has to date been almost exclusively based around national accounts of how the Community went from six to nine members in January 1973. This dissertation aims, in part, to fill this void in the history of the early years of the EEC.