The European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.
The circular building on the left contains the legislature;
the high rises on the right contain the offices of European Parliament Members.

by Rolf Buschardt Christensen

The European Union is one of the most successful examples of regional integration. It has given Europe the longest period of peace and prosperity in its history. Since 1957 this visionary enterprise has been a magnet for its neighbours and has grown from six to 27 Member States, creating a market of nearly 500 million people. Despite major internal and external challenges, the 50^th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome is truly an anniversary worth celebrating.

After two world wars with horrendous and unjustifiable devastation and genocide, dictatorships and warped ideologies, there had to be another way to conduct relations among the countries of Europe – such as mandatory political and economical cooperation – legally binding through common democratic institutions and joint policies.

When on March 25, 1957 the leaders of Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Rome, they committed themselves to establish the "foundation of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe." Reconciliation was high on the agenda, above all between France and Germany. The aim was to establish a united Europe, which across the board would incorporate and promote freedom, individual opportunity, prosperity, social security and peace.

Building on the success of the 1951 European Coal and Steel Community, the Treaty of Rome, creating the European Economic Community, went further than any other international treaty had ever done in binding sovereign countries to ever-closer cooperation. It was a bold move, as with this Treaty the Six pooled their sovereignty in specific economic areas, and committed themselves to cooperate by establishing joint institutions with common policies. A new supranational way of working together was spearheaded by the Six. This institutionalized cooperation would integrate the participating countries to such an extent that going to war with each other again would not only be materially impossible, but also unthinkable.

While the European Union is not a full-blown federation, it is definitely much more than an international organization. The 1957 Treaty of Rome created institutions that were given many of the legislative, executive and judicial powers traditionally exercised by Member States at the national level. The power of the EU institutions to take measures with the force of law distinguishes the EU from traditional international organizations.

The EU is committed to a market economy and the right to private property. Within the EU there is free movement of goods, services, capital and people. Thirteen of the Member States have adopted the euro as their currency. The European Union is the world’s largest trading entity and it negotiates as such within the World Trade Organization, with the aim of further liberalizing world trade. Moreover, the EU is the world’s largest donor of development and humanitarian aid and is providing peacekeeping troops in a number of countries.

While disagreements arise over certain issues from time to time, the EU and the United States are partners, both bilaterally and together on the world stage. Like the US, the EU is built on basic Western values such as democracy, the rule of law, rights for minorities, as well as freedom of speech, religion, assembly and political affiliation. The EU’s Social Charter guarantees access to education and health care. Former fascist dictatorships in Southern Europe and former Communist countries in Eastern Europe, which have since joined the EU, have now committed themselves fully and willingly to these values.

Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland were the first to join the original Six in 1973. This year, in January 2007, Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU, bringing the membership to 27 countries. Other European countries in the Balkans have also applied for membership.

The immediate objectives of the 1957 Treaty of Rome were to establish a customs union with a common external tariff and a common commercial policy, with the free movement of goods between the participating countries. The creation of the customs union meant the dismantling of quotas and barriers to trade of all kinds. Within the customs union there was to be complete free movement of goods, persons, services and capital.

The preamble and the general clauses of the Treaty called for the implementation of joint policies and rules in virtually all areas of economic life. The Treaty provided for a number of common policies on matters such as agriculture, transport and competition. It also provided for a common external trade policy and the harmonization of legislation.

A special article in the Treaty empowered the European Economic Community to set up any policies – even if not specifically provided for by the Treaty – that may be necessary to attain the general objectives set out in the Treaty. It has been under this article that the European Community, now European Union, gradually developed other policies, often spearheaded by the Brussels-based Commission.

The customs union was completed in 1968, eighteen months ahead of schedule. But technical norms, health and safety standards, exchange controls and national regulations on the right to practice certain professions, all reduced the free movement of people, goods and capital. It wasn’t until 1993 that the Single Market was finally completed, when the last physical, technical and tax-related barriers to free movement were at long last dismantled.

The 50^th anniversary of the Treaty was naturally celebrated in Rome, but also Berlin, with a Summit Meeting of heads of government, as well as in countless other cities across Europe. One of the reasons for the celebration was, of course, to observe the many years of peace, but certainly to also commemorate the Treaty that established the supranational EU system with its built-in dynamism and the Commission’s right of initiative to propose further cooperation. After all, it was the 1957 Treaty, which brought enough critical mass together to sustain continuing European political and economic integration.