Margaret Thatcher’s historic speech known as the “The Bruges Speech” was delivered on September 20, 1988. Thatcher’s speech rejected the political union of Europe which is the federalization of Europe. Thatcher proposed instead a wider, decentralized, outward-looking democratic Europe of independence: “I want to start by disposing of some myths about my country, Britain, and its relationship with Europe and to do that, I must say something about the identity of Europe itself. … Europe is not the creation of the Treaty of Rome. … Nor is the European idea the property of any group or institution.”
