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-German coal and steel production, as these two raw materials were the basis of the industry (including war industry) and power of the two countries. The proposed plan was that Franco-German coal and steel production would be placed under a common High Authority within the framework of an organisation which 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.
France, 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 and on 1 May 1953 for steel.
Partly, in the aim of creating a federal 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]
The Treaty of Rome signing ceremony, at the
Palazzo dei Conservatori on Capitoline Hill
As a result of energy crises, the Common Assembly proposed extending the powers of the ECSC to cover other sources of energy. However Jean 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 Germany were also keen on creating a general common market, although it was opposed by France due to its protectionism and Jean Monnet thought it too large and difficult a task. In the end, Monnet proposed creating both as separate communities, in an 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 (Spaak Committee) charged with the preparation of a report on the creation of a common European market.
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.
| 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 |
The outcome of the conference was that new communities would share the Common Assembly (now 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, this was due to a reduction in their powers. France was reluctant to agree to more supranational powers and hence the new Commissions would only have 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]
The conference led to the signature, on 25 March 1957, of the Treaties of Rome 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]
Euratom
The Euratom treaty is less well known due to the lower profile of that organisation. While the EEC has evolved into what is now the European Union, Euratom has remained much the same and is governed by the same institutions as the EEC. It was established with independent institutions, but in 1967 the Merger Treaty merged the institutions of Euratom and the ECSC with those of the EEC. The Euratom treaty has seen very little amendment due to the later sensitivity surrounding nuclear power amongst the European electorate.
Renamings and amendments
The EEC 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 1993 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, and hence the Community. This lead to the treaty being amended and renamed as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).[10]
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.
