ABSTRACT
Background The relationship between the United Kingdom and its parliament, and the European Union has been a key theme of British politics for more than thirty years. On 1 January 1973, the UK joined what were then three ‘European Communities’: the European Economic Community (EEC) or ‘Common Market’, together with the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). The 1992 Maastricht Treaty renamed the European Economic Community simply the ‘European Community’ and made it part of the new European Union.
