Incoming UK Prime Minister Theresa May - whose top task is to negotiate Britain's exit from the European Union - has much in common with Britain's first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was famous for savaging the Brussels machine. In September 1988, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher delivered a keynote speech to the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium in which she outlined her view of Britain's place in Europe. It was a defining speech that inspired the creation of the Bruges Group which promoted the idea of a less centralized Europe. In that famous speech, Thatcher said: "Europe will be stronger precisely because it has France as France, Spain as Spain, Britain as Britain, each with its own customs, traditions and identity. It would be folly to try to fit them into some sort of identikit European personality." Her remarks were prescient. Speaking four years before the signing of the Maastricht Treaty that paved the way for the European Union as it is today, she was arguing for a union of nations that worked together for a common good, without usurping national sovereignty. Nearly 28 years on from the Bruges speech, Theresa May is set to become the prime minister whose major task is to negotiate Britain's exit from the EU. The two women have much in common.
