3 October 1969 : Common Market Commission recommends that negotiations with Britain should be opened as soon as possible

Serious negotiations between Britain and the Common Market seemed measurably nearer last night after a sequence of events in Bonn, Brussels, and Brighton.

• IN BONN, Herr Willy Brandt appeared to be assured of becoming the new German Chancellor. The Free Democrats, with a single dissentient, decided to go into a coalition with the Social Democrats. The two parties together will have a majority of 12 in the Bundestag. Herr Brandt has already said that he will press for early consideration of Britain’s application to join the Common Market.

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• IN BRUSSELS the Common Market Commission, in a report to member Governments, recommended that negotiations with Britain, Ireland, Denmark, and Norway should be opened as soon as possible. It said that candidates for membership should be made aware that they were not only joining an economic organisation but must share in creating an economically and politically united Continent.

• IN BRIGHTON the Prime Minister, in a television interview, said, “If they’re ready, we’re ready.” He pointed out that all of the six Governments had to agree to starting negotiations. If they did so, Britain would send a team at once. If the terms resulting from the negotiations could be commended to the country, the Government would do so and Britain would be ready to go into Europe.

Earlier in the day, the Labour Party conference in Brighton had accepted a resolution calling on the Government, in negotiating for membership of the European Community, to insist on adequate safeguards for Britain’s balance of payments, cost of living, social security, and independent decision in economic planning and foreign policy.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Harold Wilson at the Labour Party conference, Brighton, September 1969. Photograph: Rolls Press/Popperfoto via Getty Images

Mr Wilson, when asked on television whether popular support for entering Europe had not waned, replied that he thought not many people in Britain would disagree with the Brighton conference’s decision. Asked whether people abroad might not take the view that the British Government was cooling off, he replied: “They would be wrong.” On the conference’s emphasis on independent economic planning, he said that on regional planning “existing members of the Community have the freedom we want.”

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IN BRUSSELS the Common Market Commission’s report is said to be much more optimistic about the chances of successful negotiation with Britain than it was in 1967. It recognises (with Mr Wilson) that the British economy is stronger: it regards British agriculture as highly efficient and it looks forward to a transitional period of some years.

This is an edited extract. Read the article in full.