History
The origins of the European Movement lie in the aftermath of the Second World War. More than eight hundred delegates from across Europe gathered in The Hague in May 1948, under the chairmanship of Sir Winston Churchill, to create a new international movement to promote European unity and prevent further wars between its members. The British section of the European Movement was founded a year later.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the European Movement put forward the arguments for the United Kingdom joining the European Economic Community, and campaigned in support of membership in the 1970s. During the UK's European Communities membership referendum in 1975, the organisation was involved within the 'Yes' campaign.
Other campaigns since then have included pressing for direct elections to the European Parliament in the 1970s and promoting the supposed benefits of the single market in the run-up to 1992.
Read more about this topic: European Movement UK
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“The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.”
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