Catalogue description Foreign Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office: European Economic Organisations Department and successors: Registered Files (ME and MW Series)

Former file reference order within file cycles

The European Economic Organisations Department of the Foreign Office dealt with the UK's relations with the European Economic Community, Euratom and the European Coal and Steel Community, with the European Free Trade Association, with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the Western European Union, with the European Movement in the UK, and with the proposed North Atlantic Free Trade Area.

In April 1969 the European Economic Organisations Department was renamed the European Economic Integration Department, though its functions were basically unaltered, and in 1973, in the run up to the UK's accession to the communities, the Department split in two, the European Integration Department (External), dealing with European political co-operation and Community relations with third countries, and the European Integration Department (Internal) dealing with the internal working and development of the Community, and parliamentary and legal aspects of UK membership.