‘The Summit is Dead. Long Live the European Council’: Britain and the Question of Regular Leaders’ Meetings in the European Community, 1973-1975

Abstract:

In analysing British policy towards the creation of the European Council from 1973-1975, this article will argue that British leaders were supporters of the idea of regular summits regardless of party affiliation and that policy on this issue suggests that, in this area at least, British policy was consistent and positive about European Community membership.

In so doing, the article will also show how the British government wrestled with the idea of how to make leaders-level meetings work most effectively — in terms of frequency, organization and atmosphere — as a means of doing business in an international organization. The result was the creation of a system of serial summits that helped the Community to escape the economic doldrums of the 1970s.