摘要

英国与其欧洲大陆的伙伴的关系一直充满微妙。英国往往被称为欧洲“尴尬的伙伴”。使英国与欧洲产生疏离感的不亲是狭长的英吉利海峡，更重要的是英国采取的对欧洲大陆的政治、经济政策。英国通过十七世纪海上霸权的建立、十八世纪工业革命的兴起以及十九世纪的全球殖民扩张，在两次世界大战以前，都对整个欧洲享有绝对的领导权，是整个欧洲的中心。然后随着世界大战的结束，英国国力遭受了巨大的损失。战后的英国并没有选择与德国等欧洲大陆国家一起建立欧洲煤钢共同体（欧盟前身），而是在其大陆上的伙伴们一次次推进欧洲一体化的时候选择迟疑与否定的态度，比如直到1973年英国才迟迟加入欧盟，直到现在还坚持不加入欧元区的决策。这使得英国不仅逐渐失去了在欧洲事务中的绝对话语权，还使英国人渐渐处于成为欧洲边缘人的危险之中。
本课题从政治、经济、文化传统、地理位置等方面全面分析了造成英国被欧洲边缘化的原因，预测了未来英国与欧洲关系的走向，认为英国避免被完全边缘化的方法就是尽快放弃对欧洲一体化的迟疑和保守态度，放弃对英镑和昔日大英帝国的留恋情结，积极参与到欧洲一体化进程中。

关键词：英国，边缘化，欧洲一体化，欧元区，欧盟

Abstract

The relations between the UK and her continental neighbors are filled with a deep ambivalence. Britain is regarded as “an awkward partner” of other European countries. What has led to her strong sense of isolation to Continental Europe is not only the English Channel which cuts off her geographic links with her counterparts across the strait, but the political and economic policies her usually employed to Europe. Thanks to her prosperity achieved from the supremacy at sea, the industrial revolution, global colonial expansion from the 17th to 19th century, Britain had been in the absolute leading position in European affairs prior to the World War. Whilst she was subjected to substantial losses during the World War, and chose to opt out from the European Coal and Steel Community (what has become the Europe Union) founded by her European counterparts after the war. What is more important, her consistent wait-and-see attitude toward the integration of Europe led to her late entry to the EU and her opt-out from the Euro zone. As a result, Britain is brought to the brink of being marginalized in Europe.
This thesis offers an overall analysis on the factors which caused Britain's marginalization and makes a prediction of the future Anglo-EU relationships. The conclusion draws from the analysis is that the optimal approach for Britain to avoid further marginalization is to shake off her hesitation attitude and the pound sterling, and to play a more active part in Europe integration.

Key words: Britain, marginalization, Europe integration, the EU, Euro zone

1  Introduction
Britain is a unique and greatly indispensable member of the European family; however, the relations between British people and the continental European people are filled with a deep ambivalence. Being a latecomer to the European Union politically, choosing to opt-out of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) economically, and in recent times exhibiting hesitation and alienation to the emerging integration of Europe, the United Kingdom is seemingly not the absolute heart of Europe anymore.