ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the attitudes of Member States in order of their accession to the Community or Union, this is not to imply that those acceding at any one point shared an identity of interests. There have been and continue to be a number of important debates about the nature and shape of European integration, with some Member States wishing to proceed more quickly to deeper integration than others. All fifteen Member States joined the Community or Union for their own reasons and in their own perceived interests. Some joined later than others: Denmark, Ireland and the UK in 1973, Portugal and Spain in 1986, and Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995. The Benelux states had in some respects been the precursors of the European Economic Community. Their governments in exile in London agreed in 1944 to create a customs union after the civil war, eliminating all customs barriers between them and introducing a uniform tariff for imports.
