European Economic Community

In March 1957, six Western European countries signed the Treaty of Rome, creating the European Economic Community (EEC). Its central aim was a common market in which goods, workers, services and capital could move across borders with few barriers. The EEC became the core of what is now the European Union, and it reshaped how European states trade, legislate and settle disputes.

The treaty grew out of the aftermath of the Second World War. Leaders in France, West Germany and their neighbors wanted to bind their economies together so tightly that another continental war would become unthinkable. The first step was the European Coal and Steel Community, proposed in 1950 by French foreign minister Robert Schuman and designed with Jean Monnet, which placed coal and steel production under a shared authority. It began operating in 1952 with six members: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. An attempt to extend integration into defense collapsed in 1954 when the French parliament rejected a proposed European Defence Community, pushing supporters toward economic cooperation instead.

A 1955 conference at Messina revived the effort, and a committee chaired by Belgian statesman Paul-Henri Spaak prepared the groundwork. The Treaty of Rome was signed on 25 March 1957 and took effect on 1 January 1958. A companion treaty created the European Atomic Energy Community, or Euratom, to coordinate nuclear research. The EEC treaty provided for a customs union, with internal tariffs to be phased out and a common external tariff to be adopted. It also set up common policies for areas such as agriculture and established institutions including the European Commission, a Council of Ministers, an Assembly (later the European Parliament) and a Court of Justice.

The community's early years were generally marked by strong economic growth, though progress was uneven and politically contested. In the 1960s, French president Charles de Gaulle clashed with his partners over how much power should rest with common institutions, leading to the "empty chair" crisis of 1965, and he vetoed British membership in 1963 and 1967. The Common Agricultural Policy became both a cornerstone of integration and a long-running source of controversy over its cost.

Over time, the EEC expanded and deepened. Britain, Ireland and Denmark joined in 1973, followed by Greece, Spain and Portugal in the following decade. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 transformed the community into the European Union and paved the way for a shared currency, while the earlier "EEC" name was dropped in favor of "European Community." Historians continue to debate whether integration was driven mainly by idealism about peace, by national economic interests, or by Cold War pressures, and most see a mixture of all three.