How Did The British Join Euratom

In Butler’s piece, he introduces, contrasts and analyzes British reactions to the formation of supranational institutions on continental Europe. In 1957 the Treaty of Rome was signed by six Western European powers. The signing of the treaty is often viewed as the beginning of forming supranational institutions on the continent of Europe. From the treaty, came the European Economic Community and the lesser-known Euratom. Together with the European Coal and Steel Community, they formed the Common Market responsible for European collaboration on the nuclear power market. In 1955 it was apparent the many British officials were not overly interested in the prospect of joining Euratom. The main concerns were the damaging affects the community would
Throughout 1955–63 Britain struggled to come to terms with its perceived decline if they were to join Euratom. Britain had to choose between prestige through independence and prestige through integration. In 1957 Britain made a counter-proposal of the formation of a European Free Trade Area. It eliminated the supra nationalist elements that Britain had found threatening. The UK was not very easy in negotiating with Euratom and in fact it took until 1958 with the signing of the US-Euratom bilateral agreement for the British to reevaluate their position. Britain finally progressed from flat-out refusal to acknowledge the existence and potential of Euratom to evaluating benefits and disadvantages of collaboration. The UK-Euratom bilateral agreement was reached in 1959. While the UK clung hard to their want to preserve prestige through independence, compromise and collaboration became more necessary due to diminishing British atomic lead. In 1960, Prime Minister Macmillan instructed that preparations for a British application to all three communities be