40 years after EU accession, there’s not so much to cheer about

“Forty years ago today a Union Jack was raised on top of the Brussels headquarters of what was then known as the European Economic Community,” begins Dominic Lawson in The Independent.

I may be missing something; but there do not seem to be any such celebrations, either in Brussels or Blighty, to mark the 40th anniversary of what must be accounted the most significant moment – at least symbolically – in post-war British history.” Contrasting Europe's relationship with the UK to the EU's relationship with Ireland – which joined the EEC at the same time and has now taken over the EU’s rotating national presidency, the conservative columnist concludes that most Britons are far removed from the mindset of those at the heart of the EU project. With pressure mounting on UK Prime Minister David Cameron to hold a clear “in-out” referendum on British membership of the EU, Lawson adds –

I know that many think there is actually something uncivilised in not being a member of the EU. But I have never felt, when in Switzerland, that I am far from civilisation; nor that Switzerland’s international image is somehow diminished by its lack of membership of this particular political club. Forty years on, it is high time to reassess the terms of our own partnership: as with some marriages, amicable separation might be preferable to fractious co-habitation.