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1. Hello United Kingdom, it’s the ‘Friendly Five’ here, and can we ask you to cast your mind back to where this all began for us?
2. Do when you were attempting to bring about a united Europe?
3. Some of you took part in The Congress of Europe.
4. And then you agreed on a plan to share with us.
5. It was at the Council of Europe that we took the first steps towards a political union together.
6. Where you debated what a European political union might look like.
7. But you couldn't agree amongst yourselves.
8. And that’s when France, and the five of us, settled on a plan that you said you could not be part of.
9. Clearly you didn’t want to be left out, because you did your best to remain part of the process.
10. We were happy to include you because we regretted the fact you weren’t working with us.
11. So imagine our surprise when you asked to talk to us about another plan you had.
12. While you wanted to talk about a political union, we hadn’t even got to the stage of creating the Common Market.
13. We were really sorry when your economic integration solution fell through.
14. Because, without that economic integration, you could only watch as the rest of us declared we would give form to our will for political unity.
15. We were delighted when you finally said you were going to join us.
16. At the time, it did look like the only solution that would allow you to realise your European political vision.
17. You clearly had very clear ideas of which direction you wanted it to go.
18. So we told France that the five of us weren’t going to go forward without you.
19. We weren’t the only ones who wanted to discuss the future vision for Europe.
20. And we still remember when your Prime Minister wrote the pamphlet explaining that the UK would be accepting the ultimate goal of political unity.
21. But do you remember how angry we all were after you were vetoed, and we all agreed that France shouldn’t be preventing us from working together?
22. When we tell people today that we once considered preceding a Council meeting with a formal meeting between ourselves and the UK, nobody believes us.
23. You certainly showed that you weren’t going to let the veto get in the way of taking part in all the future discussions on political union.
24. You wanted it so badly, the least we could do is represent you.
25. We weren’t surprised when you returned to the Council of Europe insisting that membership of that political union should not be restricted to ourselves and France.
26. But you obviously still believed the EEC was the best vehicle, and again we were delighted when negotiations began again.
27. And when France vetoed your EEC membership again, you made it clear that we were going to create a political union with or without them.
28. It wasn’t long before you were leading the way again.
29. Who knows what would have happened had France not capitulated and brought you back to the negotiating table?
30. We remember you rushing to Brussels to ask if the political union could wait, and even when France refused, you would not take their ‘no’ for an answer.
31. Your Prime Minister evidently looked forward to making an important contribution to our European institutions.
32. Creating some sort of political union was what really mattered to you.
33. A union which would develop over decades with each step approved through parliamentary consent.
34. And so, despite France saying you couldn’t be involved until you were a full member, you were invited to the Paris summit.
35. After your ten year battle to be part of those discussions, we all got together and we did, indeed, make history that day.
36. Finally there was to be ‘European Union’.
37. It was to be far more than a Common Market.
38. A community of nations who will grow ever closer as the years pass.
39. One whose scope will gradually extend until it covers virtually the whole field of collective human endeavour.
40. With each decision moving closer to the vision of those who helped found the community: The vision of a European Union.
41. Then you wanted to renegotiate for the people who didn’t want to take part in the European project, and that led us all to make concessions and conditions.
42. Although, in the final days of your public debate, it was noted the political argument a priority and the trade relationship had been the main contention.
43. But when the subject did arise those, who had debated it for it for so many years before, spoke with passion for the new Europe you were going to help create.
44. Which should come as no surprise when it was always the political union you were always interested in creating, not the Common Market.
45. Yet despite having been a leading proponent of European Union for twenty seven years, for the last twenty-nine years, some have claimed this was never mentioned.
46. We bring this up because, along with two political declarations, you committed your full support for the creation of a political union in four negotiations with us.
47. And hopefully it is now clear why, in this negotiation, we would like you to commit to the things you say you support today before you forget they were ever mentioned.
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