| Since World War II Britain has had a difficult time coming to terms with the process of building the European Union, which today comprises fifteen nation-states. In 1950 Britain's postwar Labour government rejected joining six other West European states in the first official step of this process, the creation of a coal and steel community with authority over the national government members. Labour's Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, had endeavored to build a European policy through which Britain could lead European economic cooperation, but that would also preclude political integration. Bevin intended that the British functional approach would be the means for developing this policy. This paper defines the British functional approach, and then explains why it failed as a basis for British leadership in Europe. The paper also describes its continued influence on Britain's relationship with European integration in the second half of the twentieth century. |
