| Background Information | The European Movement is one of the UK's leading pro-European organisations, both long-standing and high-profile, and has played a significant role on all the post-Second World War efforts to secure the UK's greater integration in Europe. It has a determinedly cross-party character, with current vice-presidents including Neil Kinnock, Kenneth Clark and Shirley Williams. Internationally, it is the national branch of the Brussels-based European Movement International. The organisation's British roots can be discerned in Winston Churchill's 1946 Zurich speech, in which he (somewhat vaguely) called for a United States of Europe. This led to the creation of the United Europe Committee, under the leadership of Churchill's son-in-law, Duncan Sandys, which in turn was one of the driving organisations behind the 1948 Hague Congress, from which the European Movement emerged. The history of the European Movement is closely intertwined with that of Britain in Europe, and researchers are therefore also advised to consult the records for that organisation. A youth branch also exists, the Young European Movement, which is in turn affiliated to the Young European Federalists (Jeunes Européens Fédéralistes JEF). In the early 1970s, the Movement absorbed the United Europe Association, a body which had been around since the 1960s, and followed on from the Common Market Campaign. Company no. 551817. Sources: www.euromove.org.uk; http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk; Barberis et al _Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations_ 2000 p139 |
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