Letter: We voted for Europe, not Euro-merger

Sir: John Redwood ("We didn't vote for a country called Europe", 21 December) distorts history by claiming that when Britain was joining the EEC "no one told us we were joining the European Union or that the common market would gradually metamorphose into a country called Europe".

The EEC summit conference of October 1972, attended by our Prime Minister and widely reported by the British media, committed existing and future members of the EEC to the creation of a European Union by the end of 1979 and an Economic and Monetary Union by the end of 1980.

As director of the European Movement during the campaign for British entry during 1970-71 and as national organiser of the referendum campaign in 1974-75, I can confirm, from existing archives and my own records, that all our briefings to public speakers on our behalf always stressed the political nature of European integration and the need for Europe to develop from a common market into a political union.

ERNEST WISTRICH

London NW3