Treaty of Rome (1957)

We explain what the Treaty of Rome is and how important it was in the history of the European Union.

The Treaty of Rome was signed by six countries that created the European Economic Community.
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What is the Treaty of Rome (1957)?

Two treaties signed in the Italian capital are known as Rome. on March 25, 1957. These treaties They gave existence to the European Economic Community (CEE) and the European Community of Atomic Energy (EURATOM) .

The signatories of this agreement were Christian Pineau for France, Joseph Lins for the Netherlands, Paul-Henri Spaak for Belgium, Joseph Bech for Luxembourg, Antonio Segni for Italy and Konrad Adenauer for the Federal Republic of Germany.

The ratification of the Treaty of Rome by the parliaments of “Los Seis” (that is, the signatory countries that went into the EEC) took place in the following months and the treaty entered into force on January 1, 1958. This fact placed the foundations of the future European Union .

The constitutive treaty of the European Economic Community

The customs union

The “treaty constituting the European Economic Community”, signed in Rome in 1957, affirmed in its preamble that the signatory states were “determined to Establish the foundations of a fissure union narrower among European countries. ”Thus the political objective of progressive integration between the various member countries was clear.

In practice, what was created was basically a customs union . For this reason, CEE was popularly known as the common market . A 12 -year transitory process for the total elimination of tariffs between member countries was agreed.

Due to the economic success derived from the greater fluidity of commercial exchanges, the transitory term was shortened and, on July 1, 1968, All internal tariffs between member states were suppressed . At the same time, a common customs tariff was adopted for all products from third countries.

This common market exclusively affected the free movement of goods . The free movement of people, capitals and services continued to have important limitations. Only with the unique European act, which entered into force in 1987, the final impulse was given so that in 1992 a true unified market was established.

Common agricultural policy (PAC)

The other central element of the Treaty of Rome was the adoption of A common agricultural policy (PAC), which began operating in 1962. The PAC established the Freedom of circulation of agricultural products within CEE and the adoption of strongly protectionist policies .

These measures guaranteed a sufficient level of income from European farmers because they avoided the competition of third countries products and offered subsidies to agricultural prices.

With the aim of financing the PAC The European Agricultural Orientation and Guarantee Fund (Foaga) was created . The PAC absorbed most of the community budget, so since 1992 it was made successive reforms. At present, a significant percentage of the European Union budget continues to represent.

The Rome treaty also established the prohibition of monopolies, some common transport policies and the granting of some commercial privileges to the territories that were then colonies of the Member States.

The other treaty signed in Rome in 1957 instituted the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) which intended to create the conditions for the development of a thriving nuclear industry. While it is usually considered less important than the EEC treaty, the EUATOM is still currently in force.

The political institutions of the CEE

With the creation of the EEC, European institutions were founded and expanded.

The Treaty of Rome meant the triumph of the “functionalist” theses, mainly represented by the French banker Jean Monnet (who had been high authority of the European Coal and Steel Community).

Given the impossibility of immediately accessing a European political union (as the failure of the European Defense Community formulated in 1952, which did not even come into force,) The new strategy sought an integration process that was gradually affecting various sectors economic and that was promoting the creation of supranational institutions.

In this way, the Member States were expected to be gradually giving economic, administrative and, finally, policies to European supranational institutions.

With this objective a series of CEE institutions was created:

  • the European Commission,
  • the Council (also called Council of Ministers or Council of the European Union),
  • the European Assembly (subsequently the European Parliament),
  • the Court of Justice of the European Communities (today Court of Justice of the European Union),
  • The Economic and Social Committee.

As it was to move from a progressive economic integration to a progressive political union, These European institutions were expanding their powers through the signing of new treaties .

The signing of the European Union Treaty in Maastricht in 1992 was a decisive step in this direction. Currently, the European Union is governed by the Lisbon Treaty signed in 2007 (which entered into force in 2009).

Consequences of the Treaty of Rome

The “British problem” and the creation of the EFTA

The main political problem that affected CEE in its beginnings was the fact that a country as important as the United Kingdom initially remained on the sidelines. The British government refused to enter CEE for various reasons :

  • The importance of their commercial and political ties with their colonies and excolonias mostly grouped in the Commonwealth (or Commonwealth of Nations).
  • His refusal to enter a customs union . The British government defended the creation of an area of ​​free change, in which the internal customs rights of Customs were abolished but in which each country had freedom to put its own tariffs with respect to third countries.
  • The null British will to embark on a project in which the transfer of sovereignty was raised in the long term of each State for the benefit of supranational European institutions. In other words, the British did not share the objective of a European political unit.

After the failure of the negotiations for their entry into the EEC, The British government led to the creation of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), to which Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Austria and Portugal adhered.

This association, which fled from any political integration project, was a mere free trade zone (mainly industrial products) and did not establish any common tariff.

The extension of the EEC in 1973

Charles de Gaulle, president of France, vetoed the entrance of the United Kingdom in the EEC.

CEE promoted significant economic growth with growth rates that were not only superior to those of the United Kingdom but, in the sixties, they even exceeded the rates of the United States.

For this reason, in August 1961, The British Prime Minister requested the beginning of negotiations for the entrance of the United Kingdom in the EEC . However, after various negotiations, The president of France, Charles de Gaulle, twice vetoed the British income in the EEC (in 1963 and in 1967).

De Gaulle wanted to build what he called the “Europe of the Homelands”, which was independent of the two superpowers of the Cold War (the United States and the Soviet Union), and distrust the close relationship of the United Kingdom with the US government.

De Gaulle believed in a strong Europe but not in a politically united Europe, since French national independence was considered an unnegotiable issue. The general nationalism Of Gaulle triggered the “empty chair crisis” In 1965, which held the European European Community for months due to the withdrawal of the French representatives of the European Council for institutional disagreements. This crisis ended with Luxembourg's commitment in 1966.

Only after the resignation of De Gaulle in 1969, caused by internal policy reasons, the way for British adhesion was cleared. The new negotiations had to face the opposition of important parts of British public opinion, which were contrary to the entrance to the EEC, but finally were successful and,, In 1972, the United Kingdom Adhesion Treaty was signed .

In 1973, the United Kingdom and two other countries (Denmark and Ireland) entered the EEC. The “nine Europe” was born.

The Norwegians, whose government had also signed an adhesion treaty, voted against in a referendum, so Norway remained at the time outside the community.

The “twelve Europe” and the unique European act

The “oil crisis” of 1973 ended the period of spectacular economic growth that European countries had experienced. Unemployment, inflation and the crisis of traditional industry sectors characterized the economic landscape of the CEE in the second half of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties.

Although some journalists coined the terms “Euroscepticism” and “Euroschlerosis” to refer to what seemed to be the exhaustion of the European integration process, actually During these years important advances took place both in the sense of greater integration and in the expansion of the European community to new members.

Some key moments were:

  • From 1975 the so -called European Council began to operate a periodic meeting of the heads of state and government of the Member States of the EEC, where the great strategic decisions of the community are made.
  • In 1979 the European Monetary System (SME) was born accompanied by the creation of ECU (European Currency Unitwhich can be translated as a European monetary unit), direct background of the euro. The currencies of the member countries were linked to a narrow fluctuation band of their exchange value of 2.25 %. In addition, governments promised to coordinate their monetary policies. It was the first significant step towards the monetary unit.
  • In 1979 the first elections took place For universal suffrage to the European Parliament.
  • The end of military dictatorships In Greece (1974), Portugal (1974) and Spain (1975) led to the adhesion of these countries to CEE: Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986. The community was extended to Mediterranean Europe and became the “twelve Europe”.
  • In 1984, a group of European parliamentarians, led by the Italian Altiero Spinelli, presented to the European Parliament a “European Union Treaty Project” . This project proposed the approval of a new treaty that replaced that of Rome (signed in 1957) and that allowed progress in European integration. Despite being approved by governments, he relaunched the debate on the future of the European Community and anticipated the advances that would take place in the 1990s.
  • In 1985, the three Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg), France and Germany signed the Schengen agreement to which most community countries later adhered. This began an ambitious initiative to guarantee the free movement of people and the gradual suppression of the borders between the member states of the community.

In the second half of the eighties, the integration process received an important political impulse, largely led by the French socialist politician Jacques Delors, elected president of the European Commission in 1985.

The first step in this direction was The approval in 1986 of the single European Act which proposed the creation of a European market for 1992. This fact He drawn the way to the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and the construction of the European Union which entered into force in November 1993.

In the Treaty of Lisbon, which currently governs, the Treaty of Rome is recognized as an antecedent that was successively modified, but it is called “Treaty of Operation of the European Union.”

Treaty of Rome

March 25, 1957

(selection)

Constitutive Treaty of the European Economic Community

“His Majesty The King of the Belgians, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, the President of the French Republic, the President of the Italian Republic, his Royal Highness The Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, His Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands;

Resolved to establish the foundations of an increasingly narrow union among European peoples;

Determined to ensure by a common action the economic and social progress of their countries, eliminating the barriers that divide Europe;

Considering as an essential goal of their efforts the constant improvement of the living and employment conditions of their peoples;

Recognizing that the elimination of existing obstacles requires joint action to guarantee stability in expansion, balance in exchanges and loyalty in competition;

Concerned to strengthen the unity of their economies and ensure their harmonic development, reducing the distance between the various regions and the delay of the least favored;

Wishing to contribute, thanks to a common commercial policy, to the progressive suppression of restrictions in international exchanges;

Proposing to strengthen the solidarity that unites Europe with overseas countries, and wishing to ensure the development of its prosperity in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Charter;

Resolved to consolidate, through the constitution of this set of resources, the safeguarding of peace and freedom, and inviting the other peoples of Europe who share their ideal to associate with their effort;

They have decided to create a European economic community and have designated as plenipotentiaries (…)

Which, after having exchanged their full powers in good and due form, have agreed the provisions that follow:

First part

The principles

Art. 1. For this treaty, the high contracting parties institute a European economic community with each other.

Art. 2. The community is intended, by establishing a common market and the progressive approach of the economic policy of the Member States, promoting a harmonious development of economic activities in the whole community, a continuous and balanced expansion, increasing stability, an accelerated elevation of the standard of living, and narrower relations between the states that constitute it. (…)“

Rome, March 25, 1957

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References

  • Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Treaty of Rome. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
  • Fernández Navarrete, D. (2022). History of the European Union: from the origins to post-overxit. Autonomous University of Madrid Editions.
  • Gabel, MJ (2022). European Union. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/topic/european-union European Parliament (SF). Treaty of Rome (CEE). Official website of the European Parliament. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/

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