Treaty of Rome

For other uses, see Treaty of Rome (disambiguation).
Treaty of Rome
Treaty establishing the European Economic Community

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The signing ceremony of the Treaty at the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill
Type Founding treaty
Signed 25 March 1957
Location Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy
Effective 1 January 1958
Parties

Original parties:

Depositary Government of Italy
Languages German, French, Italian and Dutch (original version)
The Treaty establishing the European Economic Community at Wikisource

The Treaty of Rome, officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (TEEC), is an international agreement that led to the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC). It was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany and came into force on 1 January 1958. It remains one of the two most important treaties in the modern-day European Union (EU).

The TEEC proposed the progressive reduction of customs duties and the establishment of a customs union. It proposed to create a single market for goods, labour, services, and capital across the EEC's member states. It also proposed the creation of common transport and agriculture policies and a European social fund and established the European Commission.

Since its signature, the treaty's name has been retrospectively amended on several occasions. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 removed the word "economic" from the Treaty of Rome's official title and, in 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon renamed it the "Treaty on the functioning of the European Union".

Background

Treaty of Paris and the ECSC

In 1951, the Treaty of Paris was signed, creating the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The Treaty of Paris was an international treaty based on international law, designed to help reconstruct the economies of the European continent, prevent war in Europe and ensure a lasting peace.

The original idea was conceived by Jean Monnet, a senior French civil servant and it was announced by Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister, in a declaration on 9 May 1950. The aim was to pool Franco-West German coal and steel production, as the two raw materials were the basis of the industry (including war industry) and power of the two countries. The proposed plan was that Franco-West German coal and steel production would be placed under a common High Authority within the framework of an organisation that would be open for participation to other European countries. The underlying political objective of the European Coal and Steel Community was to strengthen Franco-German cooperation and banish the possibility of war.

Modern-day view of the Palazzo dei Conservatori (today the Capitoline Museums) where the treaty was signed in 1957

France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands began negotiating the treaty. The Treaty Establishing the ECSC was signed in Paris on 18 April 1951 and entered into force on 24 July 1952. The Treaty expired on 23 July 2002, after fifty years, as was foreseen. The common market opened on 10 February 1953 for coal, iron ore and scrap, on 1 May 1953 for steel.

Partly in the aim of creating a United States of Europe, two further communities were proposed, again by the French. A European Defence Community (EDC) and a European Political Community (EPC). While the treaty for the latter was being drawn up by the Common Assembly, the ECSC parliamentary chamber, the EDC was rejected by the French Parliament. President Jean Monnet, a leading figure behind the communities, resigned from the High Authority in protest and began work on alternative communities, based on economic integration rather than political integration.[1]

As a result of the energy crises, the Common Assembly proposed extending the powers of the ECSC to cover other sources of energy. However, Monnet desired a separate community to cover nuclear power, and Louis Armand was put in charge of a study into the prospects of nuclear energy use in Europe. The report concluded further nuclear development was needed to fill the deficit left by the exhaustion of coal deposits and to reduce dependence on oil producers. However, the Benelux states and West Germany were also keen on creating a general common market, but it was opposed by France due to its protectionism and Monnet thought it too large and difficult a task. In the end, Monnet proposed creating both as separate communities to attempt to satisfy all interests.[2] As a result of the Messina Conference of 1955, Paul-Henri Spaak was appointed as chairman of a preparatory committee, the Spaak Committee, charged with the preparation of a report on the creation of a common European market.

History

Move towards a Single Market

The audience chamber at the Palazzo dei Conservatori where the treaty was signed

The Spaak Report[3] drawn up by the Spaak Committee provided the basis for further progress and was accepted at the Venice Conference (29 and 30 May 1956) where the decision was taken to organise an Intergovernmental Conference. The report formed the cornerstone of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at Val Duchesse in 1956.

The outcome of the conference was that new communities would share the Common Assembly (now the Parliamentary Assembly) with the ECSC, as it would with the Court of Justice. However, they would not share the ECSC's Council of High Authority. The two new High Authorities would be called Commissions, from a reduction in their powers. France was reluctant to agree to more supranational powers and so the new Commissions would have only basic powers, and important decisions would have to be approved by the Council, which now adopted majority voting.[4] The latter body fostered co-operation in the nuclear field, at the time a very popular area, and the EEC was to create a full customs union between members.[5][6]

Signature of the Treaty of Rome

The signature page on the original Treaty of Rome

The conference led to the signature, on 25 March 1957, of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community and the Euratom Treaty at the Palazzo dei Conservatori on Capitoline Hill in Rome.

In March 2007, the BBC's Today radio programme reported that delays in printing the treaty meant that the document signed by the European leaders as the Treaty of Rome consisted of blank pages between its frontispiece and page for the signatures.[7][8][9]

Signatories For
Paul-Henri Spaak · Jean-Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers  Belgium
Konrad Adenauer · Walter Hallstein  West Germany
Christian Pineau · Maurice Faure  France
Antonio Segni · Gaetano Martino  Italy
Joseph Bech · Lambert Schaus  Luxembourg
Joseph Luns · J. Linthorst Homan  Netherlands

Renamings and amendments

The Treaty of Rome, the original full name of which was the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community has been amended by successive treaties significantly changing its content. The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht established the European Union with the EEC becoming one of its three pillars, the European Community. Hence, the treaty was renamed the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC).

When the Treaty of Lisbon came into force in 2009 the pillar system was abandoned, and hence the EC ceased to exist as a legal entity separate from the EU. This led to the treaty being amended and renamed as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).[10]

In March 2011 the European Council adopted a decision to amend the Treaty by the adding a new paragraph to Article 136. The additional paragraph, which enables the establishment of a financial stability mechanism for the Eurozone, runs as follows:

The Member States whose currency is the euro may establish a stability mechanism to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the euro area as a whole. The granting of any required financial assistance under the mechanism will be made subject to strict conditionality.[11]

For details of the content of the treaty as it stands after 2009, see Treaties of the European Union#Treaty on the functioning of the European Union.

Historical assessment

According to the historian Tony Judt, the Treaty of Rome did not represent a fundamental turning point in the history of European integration:

It is important not to overstate the importance of the Rome Treaty. It represented for the most part a declaration of future good intentions...Most of the text constituted a framework for instituting procedures designed to establish and enforce future regulations. The only truly significant innovation – the setting up under Article 177 of a European Court of Justice to which national courts would submit cases for final adjudication – would prove immensely important in later decades but passed largely unnoticed at the time.[12]

Anniversary commemorations

West German 10 Mark 1987 Silver Coin 30 Years Treaty of Rome

Major anniversaries of the singing of the Treaty of Rome have been commemorated in numerous ways. Commemorative coins have been struck by numerous European countries, notably at the 30th and 50th anniversaries (1987 and 2007 respectively).

See also

EU evolution timeline

Signed
In force
Document		 1948
1948
Brussels Treaty		 1951
1952
Paris Treaty		 1954
1955
Modified Brussels Treaty		 1957
1958
Rome
Treaty		 1965
1967
Merger Treaty		 1975
N/A
European Council conclusion		 1985
1995
Schengen
Treaty		 1986
1987
Single
European Act		 1992
1993
Maastricht Treaty		 1997
1999
Amsterdam Treaty		 2001
2003
Nice Treaty		 2007
2009
Lisbon
Treaty		  
                         
Three pillars of the European Union:  
European Communities:  
European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM)   
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Treaty expired in 2002 European Union (EU)
    European Economic Community (EEC)
        Schengen Rules   European Community (EC)
    TREVI Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)  
  Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC)
          European Political Cooperation (EPC) Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)
Unconsolidated bodies Western European Union (WEU)    
Treaty terminated in 2011  
                       

References

  1. ↑ Raymond F. Mikesell, The Lessons of Benelux and the European Coal and Steel Community for the European Economic Community, The American Economic Review, Vol. 48, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Seventieth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1958), pp. 428–441
  2. ↑ 1957–1968 Successes and crises – CVCE (Centre for European Studies)
  3. ↑ The Brussels Report on the General Common Market (abridged, English translation of document commonly called the Spaak Report) – AEI (Archive of European Integration)
  4. ↑ Drafting of the Rome Treaties – CVCE (Centre for European Studies)
  5. ↑ A European Atomic Energy Community – CVCE (Centre for European Studies)
  6. ↑ A European Customs Union – CVCE (Centre for European Studies)
  7. ↑ What really happened when the Treaty of Rome was signed 50 years ago
  8. ↑ EU landmark document was 'blank pages'
  9. ↑ How divided Europe came together
  10. ↑ "Presidency Conclusions Brussels European Council 21/22 June 2007" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 23 June 2007.
  11. ↑ The European Treaty Amendment for the Creation of a Financial Stability Mechanism (Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies)
  12. ↑ Judt, Tony (2007). Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. London: Pimlico. p. 303. ISBN 978-0-7126-6564-3.
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