United Kingdom and European Union: A Long History of Divorce Part 2. Awkward partner

The article examines the history of relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union from the 1950s to the present. The paper examines how systemic factors - the specific attitude of the UK to the design, purposes and future of the EU, a specific understanding of the basic values of integration determined the strategy and tactics of London's European policy. It demonstrates how the contradiction between London's desires to ensure independence from the EU and to influence EU policies has been growing. The paper suggests that the main parameters of London's policy towards the EU were determined by the basic features of British identity. Rooted in history, the uneasy relationship with continental Europe had transformed into a struggle against 'hegemony of the European Union'. UK as a member state tried to negotiate conditions that would allow to be both inside and outside Europe, and participate only in specific components of integration.