England, Germany and Europe

Posting this in November 2016.
Tidying up, came across this newspaper cutting from the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) probably the widest read serious daily newspaper in Germany.

Then we were 12 and had agreed the Maastricht Treaty 8 months before. The treaty that would turn the European Community in to the European Union. However the treaty had not yet been ratified and yesterday 16/10/1992 there had been a European Council meeting in Birmingham to try and get the ratification process sped up. The treaty eventually came in to force on 1 November 1993. In Birmingham much of the talk was about getting the European Community to be "closer to the citizens".

The paper discusses the Birmingham meeting and also looks forward to the up and coming visit by Queen Elisabeth to Germany the following week. She was amongst other things to lay a wreath on the tomb of her great-great-aunt, Empress Frederick, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter and the mother of Germany's last Kaiser.  

Anyway - the commentary discusses the relationship of the UK to the EC  and there are mentions of such things as Nicholas Ridley's claim that "Europe is the most evil trick of the Germans".

The UK was particularly worried that the newly united Germany would become dominant within Europe particularly with the weakness of the British economy. The following sentence is interesting in the light of the 2016 Referendum result.

"One can't risk having the impression that the British, chauvinistic, anti European fraction in the Conservative Party and in the British Press, has discovered the warfare material of Germano-Phobia to use against Europe and is using this unscrupulously."

Perhaps the UK is annoyed at not having a European Union Treaty signed in the UK - Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Schengen, Maastricht, Amsterdam. Nice, Lisbon ..... not a single Chipping Sodbury. Just goes to show how much effort the UK has put in to making a success of "Europe". I will never forget the still often used phrase on TV "The PM is going to Europe today to ....."

Good to have a government full of people raised on Eagle comics and still rejoicing the stunts of Captain Dan Dare.