Is Britain still the awkward partner in Europe?

In 2003, thirty years after Britain became a membership of the European Communities, it is still considered as Europe's "awkward partner". Where does it come from? European communities were created because the founding fathers of the union believed that integrating European countries' economies would link them in order to preserve peace between them and that this economic integration would one day lead to political integration. The other objective was to create a huge European market which …

…is one of the most important state of the European Union. In the future, will the European Union need to be more united to be effective and to compete with Asian and American markets? And will the enlargement to European Eastern states not be an additional difficulty to the European Integration? As the integration is not complete with the actual member-states, how could it be with the new countries? Will they be all "awkward partners"?