Paul-Henri Spaak, President of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) from 1952 to 1954 and President of the Intergovernmental Committee which, between July 1955 and June 1956, laid the foundations for the future European Economic Community (EEC) and European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).

On 21 April 1956, the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Committee established by the Messina Conference and chaired by Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister, publishes the Report of the Heads of Delegation on the Common Market and Euratom, known as the Spaak Report.

On 12 May 1956, L’Écho de l’Industrie, the official publication of the Federation of Luxembourg Industrialists (Fedil), outlines the implications of the Spaak Report for Luxembourg and speculates on the future of European economic integration.

On 14 May 1956, Walter Hallstein, State Secretary at the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), delivers an address to the members of the American Club in Bonn in which, referring in particular to the Spaak Report, he endorses the strategy of ‘small steps’ to relaunch the process of European integration.