The Thorny British Question: Mrs Thatcher’s Bilateral Summitry from 1979-1984 and the Multilateral Issue of the British Budgetary Problem

Abstract

In an era dominated by a web of institutionalised summitry, from the G20 to the European Council, the bilateral variant has been increasingly overlooked in the academic literature. This article seeks to rectify this situation by assessing the extent to which bilateral summits during the first five years of Mrs Thatcher’s premiership helped to solve the thorny issue of Britain’s net budgetary contribution to the European Community. In doing so, a qualitative case-study analysis was conducted, based on the use of newly released documents obtained from the National Archives in London. The argument is twofold: first, bilateral summits were not a panacea in the search for a solution to the budget question, but were instead part of a multi-level process; and second, bilateral summits were a useful forum for an exchange of views to take place, which was important in preparing for the multilateral summits that punctuated the period in question.