| Summary: | For over twenty years, beginning in 1949, more than a score of British Members of Parliament, and an additional handful of Peers, have absented themselves from Westminster for up to two months of the Parliamentary session with the approval, indeed upon authorisation of party leaders, in order to serve as delegates to one or more international parliamentary assemblies. Two of these assemblies, those of the Council of Europe and of Western European Union, have consistently concerned themselves with projects for bringing about closer British participation in the movement for European integration. Nevertheless, not only has virtually no attempt been made to discern a relationship between British parliamentary activity at these assemblies and the evolution of British attitudes toward European integration, but in fact no study has been expressly devoted to any aspect of British service in, or attitudes to, any of these bodies. The present study seeks to provide a clear picture of the nature of British involvement in the work of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe in particular, and to a lesser extent, that of the WEU Assembly and of the North Atlantic Assembly. It endeavours to determine the functions which British delegates, and the party leaders who directly or indirectly approved their appointment, ascribed to the assemblies, and to outline the way in which their view of the assemblies' functions affected their own activities at those bodies and their work at Westminster and in their constituencies. Clearly, parliamentary views about the functions of these assemblies may have undergone some change over time, and special attention therefore is devoted to the evolution of British governmental, party and delegate attitudes to the work of the assemblies, Particularly that of the Consultative Assembly - the oldest, best known and most active of the three - from 1961 onwards, that is, from teh year of Britain's first overture for EEC membership. [to continue reading the abstract please view the pdf]
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