On 15 January 1957, Pierre-Henri Teitgen, leader of the Mouvement Républicain Populaire (People’s Republican Movement — MRP), outlines to the French National Assembly the advantages of a European Common Market.

‘Yesterday like today — old tendencies versus new developments.’ On 28 February 1957, the German cartoonist, Wolfgang Hicks, illustrates the resurgent fears in Europe in the light of the prospect of change prompted by the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).

‘A Common Market? All right, but just between the two of us.’ On 24 January 1957, in the weekly publication of the General Confederation of Labour-Workers’ Force (CGT-FO), the French cartoonist, Nitro, condemns the policy of French and German employers who are trying to exclude workers from the negotiations on and establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC).

On 7 February 1957, with a view to the forthcoming meeting in Paris between the Heads of Government and the Foreign Ministers of the six countries participating in the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit analyses the final points of disagreement regarding the finalisation of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC).

In March 1957, the Belgian economist, Louis Ameye, calls for the European Economic Community (EEC) to be established quickly and to be open to the world in order to strengthen the unity of the Six and to stimulate their economy.

On 3 July 1957, commenting on the ratification debates in the French National Assembly, Pathé Journal (Paris) outlines the economic and agricultural importance of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), signed by the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in Rome on 25 March 1957.