ABSTRACT
“The United Kingdom is in Europe, virtually for good” opined The Times on the morning of Saturday, 7 June 1975, and that comment reflected the general mood. The referendum had been used by Wilson to manage what might otherwise have become an irreversible split within the Labour Party over Europe. Leo Tindemans noted a trend, as the Community prepared for direct elections to the European Parliament, to look for candidates who were fully independent and not members of their national Parliaments. The pro-European Shirley Williams, Minister for Prices and Consumer Protection, argued that “any difficulties will be outweighed by the political advantages of drawing Greece more closely into the European Community. In the EEC, the start of 1976 was marked by the publication on 7 January of the report by Belgian Prime Minister Leo Tindemans on European Union. The principal condition would be far greater transfers within Europe to the less prosperous areas—mainly Ireland, southern Italy and the UK.
