France's National Day

EDM number 327 in 2016-17, proposed by George Kerevan on 13/07/2016.
Categorised under the topics of Cultural heritage and Western Europe.

That this House sends friendly greetings to the people of France on 14 July; notes that this date was designated as their National Day by law on 6 July 1880 in commemoration of the Fête de la Fédération which took place on 14 July 1790 at a time when the country was seeking out national, political and peaceful unity following the divisive events of 1789 to 1790; champions the long association between the various peoples of France and the British Isles, including the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland; remembers that in December 1939, Britain and France created an Anglo-French Coordinating Committee for the joint planning of their wartime economies, a body chaired by Jean Monnet, who was later the founding father of the European Economic Community; further notes that on 16 June 1940, the British War Cabinet agreed a resolution stating that France and Great Britain would no longer be two nations, but one Franco-British Union, the constitution of the Union will provide for joint organs of defence, foreign, financial and economic policies, that every citizen of France would enjoy immediately citizenship of Great Britain, and that every British subject would become a citizen of France; and hopes that, whatever the outcome of the negotiations following the 23 June 2016 referendum to take the UK out of the EU the peoples of France, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will continue to enjoy close ties of friendship and economic cooperation.

This motion has been signed by a total of 38 MPs.