Europe

EDM number 698 in 1996-97, proposed by John Butcher on 19/03/1997.

That this House recognises that all of its honourable Members are good Europeans in the sense that they were all born in Europe, brought up in a Western European tradition which is multi-faceted and in which each nation has incorporated some of its fellow European nations' religious, philosophical and cultural attributes; notes that there would be no such thing as a Western European culture if Greek philosophers, German composers, French writers or Italian artists had not contributed to this inheritance and that the British people owe as much to Rousseau and Wittgenstein as they do to Adam Smith and John Lock; recognises that with the exception of the Roman Empire, attempts to control Europe on a pan-European scale have usually ended in misery for the constituent peoples and asserts that good Europeans should continue to build ever closer cultural, mutual defence and trading links within Europe while resisting attempts to build a supra-national government; and urges Her Majesty's Government to continue Britain's centuries-old tradition of pragmatic questioning of the schemes, no matter how noble sounding, of the political elites of Europe in order to assist in the building of a Europe which is outward-looking and at ease with itself.

This motion has been signed by a total of 2 MPs.