A jubilee

The Treaty of Rome is celebrating half a century 

On 25 March, the European Union celebrated a great jubilee – 50 years of signing the Treaty of Rome – a paper for establishing the European Economic Community (EEC). On 25 March 1957, the paper was signed by six countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and Luxemburg (the last three were later joined in a union called Benelux).

The full title of this paper is “A treaty for setting up the European Economic Community”. It is a corner-stone of the present European Union. Later, it was upgraded with several amendments, such as the Treaty of Maastricht (1993), which removed the word “economic” from the title, which is now known as “A treaty for establishing the European Community”, or simply, The Treaty on EC.

Another treaty was signed the same day, which marked the establishing of the European Agency for Atomic Energy (Euatom). These two treaties, joined with the Treaty for establishing the European Community for coal and steel (whose validity expired in 2002), are known with the joint name “Treaties of Rome”. They were later consolidated into one treaty.

 

M.I.