Claim 88e3d729Checked 21 Jul 2026
TrueOn the truth scale
“Britain joined the European Economic Community in 1973.”
Reasoning & Evidence21 Jul 2026
Multiple authoritative sources confirm that the United Kingdom's accession to the European Economic Community (EEC) took effect on 1 January 1973, following the signing of the Treaty of Accession in January 1972 by Prime Minister Edward Heath and the passage of the European Communities Act 1972. The BBC, Eur-Lex (the official EU legal database), and Wikipedia all corroborate this date. Denmark and Ireland joined at the same time. The EEC was indeed the forerunner of the European Union.
Sources: BBC On This Day — "1973: Britain joins the EEC" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/1/newsid_2459000/2459167.stm); Eur-Lex — Treaty concerning the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Communities (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:11972B/TXT&from=EN); Wikipedia — "Accession of the United Kingdom to the European Communities" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_the_United_Kingdom_to_the_European_Communities); HistoryExtra — "When Did The UK Join The European Economic Community (EEC) And Why?" (https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/1973-uk-joined-european-economic-community-eec-when-why/)
From article
Well, I’m Cavalier by instinct and by lifestyle. I mean, I don’t like Roundheads. You know, you can be Christian and fun or you can be Christian and, like Cromwell, be deeply puritanical and want to control everybody. So, yes, the Civil War is terribly important but I accept that there is a minor conflict in my mind on it.
Ultimately, the importance of the Civil War and the republic and what happened in the 1680s is that we put together, I think, a constitutional settlement as good as anything in the world, really. We had a system of government that we all understood. We all understood. OK, there wasn’t full emancipation, but from then on general elections really mattered. And my argument is that since [Britain joined the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union, in] 19732The year that Edward Heath’s government took Britain into what was then the European Economic Community that has gradually been diminishing, to the point now where it doesn’t really make any difference who’s in No 10. I mean, it doesn’t matter to the City any more whether it’s Tory or Labour.
Sources opened
| [1] | news.bbc.co.uk |
| [2] | eur-lex.europa.eu |
| [3] | en.wikipedia.org |
| [4] | historyextra.com |
| [5] | en.wikipedia.org |