The signing of the Rome Treaties
The signing of the Rome Treaties
The Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC), negotiated in Val Duchesse in June 1956 at the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, were signed by representatives of the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), namely the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, on 25 March 1957.
The signatories were:
Paul-Henri Spaak, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Baron Jean-Charles Snoy et d’Oppuers, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (Belgium);
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Walter Hallstein, State Secretary in the Federal Foreign Office (FRG);
Christian Pineau, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Maurice Faure, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs (France);
Antonio Segni, President of the Council of Ministers, and Gaetano Martino, Minister for Foreign Affairs (Italy);
Joseph Bech, President of the Government and Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Lambert Schaus, Ambassador to Brussels (Luxembourg);
Joseph Luns, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Johannes Linthorst Homan, Head of the Dutch delegation to the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom (Netherlands).
The signing ceremony for the Rome Treaties (Rome, 25 March 1957)
Official booklet for the ceremonies held to mark the signing of the Rome Treaties (25 March 1957)
Wanting to commit themselves to an irreversible process, the Six did not provide for any specific duration or a procedure for withdrawal in the Treaties.
They were then debated and ratified by the national parliaments of the six signatory countries between May and December 1957. The Treaties entered into force on 1 January 1958.
The declarations and official speeches on 25 March 1957 bore witness to the joy and pride of the participants, to whom the Mayor of Rome presented, to mark the event, a gold medal depicting Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf.