On 25 January 1957, with a view to the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) and Euratom, the Luxembourg Socialist daily newspaper Tageblatt outlines the role to be played by Socialists in the European integration process.

On 30 January 1957, the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique considers the economic and institutional implications of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and criticises the attitude adopted by the Belgian Delegation and, in particular, by Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister and President of the Intergovernmental Committee on the Common Market and Euratom during the Val Duchesse negotiations between the representatives of the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

On 1 February 1957, Marcel de Corte, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Liège, publishes in the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique an article in which he criticises the negative effects of Socialist ideology in relation to the establishment of a European common market.

On 2 February 1957, commenting on French demands regarding the draft Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique considers the Common Market’s chances of success.

On 28 February 1957, in the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, the colonial economist Louis Ameye publishes an editorial in which he outlines the possible impact of the future European Economic Community (EEC) on the Belgian economy and Belgian trade, particularly trade with the Overseas Countries and Territories.

On 7 March 1957, the daily newspaper Luxemburger Wort describes how the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) see the role and operation of the future 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 13 March 1957, the daily newspaper Luxemburger Wort outlines the advantages of the future European Economic Community (EEC) for the Luxembourg economy.

In August 1957, Lucien-Léandre Sermon, Economic Adviser at Brufina, the Belgian financial holdings company, and Secretary-General of the European League for Economic Cooperation (ELEC), outlines the challenges that the Belgian economy must overcome if it is to take full advantage of the prospects offered by the European Economic Community (EEC) and the opening of the commercial borders between the Six.

On 21 January 1958, Baron Jean-Charles Snoy et d’Oppuers, Secretary-General of the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs and former President of the Interim Committee for the Common Market and Euratom, gives a lecture to the Belgian Royal Society for Political Economy in which he examines the difficulties that the implementation of the European Economic Community (EEC) will pose to the Belgian economy.

On 12 May 1956, Belgian Economic Affairs Minister Jean Rey gives an address during a business lunch at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce for Belgium and Luxembourg in which he emphasises the lessons that can be drawn from the Benelux for the establishment of a European Common Market.

In April 1956, in the newspaper of the Socialist Movement for the United States of Europe (MSEUE), La Gauche Européenne, the French economist, Sébastien Constant, considers the main provisions of the Spaak Report and outlines the implications, in particular for the French economy, of the establishment of the Common Market.

On 27 June 1956, the day after the start of the Val Duchesse negotiations, the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) drafts a note that analyses the impact of labour costs on competition and on the cost price of production, based on the experience of the ECSC. One of the main arguments put forward in France against the policy of European economic integration is that social security charges, employee contributions and taxes in France are higher and therefore weigh more heavily on cost prices than in other European countries. This situation would lead to distortions of competition in an overall Common Market and would put the French economy at a disadvantage.

In July 1956, Jean Duret, Director of the Centre for Economic Research of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and member of the French Economic Council, outlines the differences of opinion between supporters of the Common Market and its dangers for the French economy.

In November 1956, André Philip, French Socialist MP and Professor of Economics at the University of Saarbrücken, publishes an article in La Gauche Européenne, the newspaper of the Socialist Movement for the United States of Europe (MSEUE), in which he outlines the essential characteristics of a common market such as the one drawn up in Brussels by the experts of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom.

On 12 January 1957, the French banker, industrialist and politician Jacques Duboin, founder of the weekly publication La Grande Relève for distributive economics and the French abundance movement, takes a critical look at the future European Common Market, which he believes is an illusory concept.

On 14 January 1957, in an article in the French Communist daily newspaper L’Humanité, Étienne Fajon, Communist MP for the Seine département and member of the Politburo of the French Communist Party (PCF), deplores the dangers that the Common Market represents for France.

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.

On 16 January 1957, Maurice Faure, Junior Foreign Minister, delivers an address to the Members of the French National Assembly in which he reviews the negotiations currently being held on the proposed European Common Market, in which he hopes that France will play an active part.

On 16 January 1957, with a view to the debates due to be held in the French National Assembly on the proposed Common Market, the French daily newspaper Combat outlines the challenges and risks that the new European commitments pose for France.

On 17 January 1957, the Force Ouvrière, official weekly newspaper of the General Confederation of Labour-Workers’ Force (CGT-FO), explains why it is in favour of the Common Market.

On 18 January 1957, Pierre Mendès France, former President of the French Council of Ministers, delivers an address to the French National Assembly in which he opposes the proposed Common Market.

‘We don’t have to be ashamed about being European (Pleven to the National Assembly).’ On 19 January 1957, in the French Communist daily newspaper L’Humanité, commenting on the debates in the National Assembly on the proposed European Economic Community (EEC), the cartoonist Mitelberg criticises the supporters of the Common Market, including Prime Minister René Pleven, who are accused of wanting to further the interests of German industry.

‘The Common Market: As yet, we have only the wrapping paper.’ On 19 January 1957, in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro, the cartoonist, Sennep, illustrates the debates being held in the French National Assembly on the proposed Common Market and takes an ironic look at the lack of substance of the arguments put forward by Guy Mollet, French Prime Minister.

On 19 January 1957, the Chairman of the Fédération des groupements et syndicats des industriels, commerçants et artisans du département de la Sarthe (Federation of Associations and Trade Unions of Manufacturers, Shopkeepers and Skilled Trade Workers in the Sarthe Department, or FICA) sends a letter to French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau in which he explains that the FICA has changed its position on the plan for a Common Market. After a detailed analysis, the FICA expresses its support for the Common Market and its hope that all necessary measures will be taken so that France can tackle this challenge in the best possible conditions.

On 22 January 1957, the Members of the French National Assembly debate the issues surrounding the ongoing negotiations on European economic integration. The question of relations with overseas countries is given particular importance, as is the integration of the market into the process of overall liberalisation of the economy. The national representatives from the various parties are also concerned by the effects of this integration on the economy and on fiscal, family and wage policy in France.

On 22 January 1957, the French Government, represented by the French State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Maurice Faure, answers questions from Members of the National Assembly on the consequences of European economic integration for the French economy. The Assembly gives its agreement in principle for the creation of a Common Market, while emphasising the need for related measures in terms of social and fiscal harmonisation and freedom of movement for workers and insisting on the association of the overseas territories.

On 24 January 1957, the day after a vote is held in the French National Assembly on the common market, Maurice Couve de Murville, French Ambassador to West Germany, informs Christian Pineau, French Foreign Minister, of the reactions in the German press, especially the concerns raised over the integration of overseas territories into the common market.

On 16 February 1957, the French banker, industrialist and politician Jacques Duboin, founder of the weekly publication La Grande Relève for distributive economics and the French abundance movement, deplores the myth of the future European Common Market and outlines some of its specific features.

On 20 February 1957, the Groupement National Interprofessionnel de la Betterave, de la Canne et des industries productrices de sucre et d’alcool (French National Interprofessional Association for Beet, Cane and the Sugar and Alcohol Manufacturing Industries, or GNIBC) adopts a motion setting out its expectations with regard to the establishment of the common market, particularly the arrangements for sugar raw materials and the association of the overseas territories.

This note from the French Foreign Ministry dated 4 February 1957 reports on the debates within the Assembly of the French Union, the representative body of the umbrella organisation for the overseas territories and metropolitan France up to 1958. In the debates, a vast majority parliamentarians expressed their support for the gradual participation of the overseas territories in the European common market. The opening of local markets should go hand in hand with investment in the infrastructures of the overseas territories.

On 15 March 1957, the Chairman of the Eastern Economic Region, which incorporates the chambers of commerce of all the départements in eastern France, puts his views to French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau on the need to support export companies ahead of integration into the common market. He suggests various transitional tax measures that could absorb the costs involved in opening up the national market to competition from European partners.

In February 1957, Jean Duret, Director of the Economic Research Centre of the French General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and member of the French Economic Council, outlines a number of dangers posed to the French economy by the Common Market and highlights the dangers of West German hegemony in Europe.

In February 1957, Paul Guérin, Honorary Embassy Counsellor, makes a scathing attack on the future European Economic Community (EEC) and deplores the risks that it might cause for the French economy.

On 5 March 1957, Georges Villiers, President of the National Council of French Employers (CNPF), sends a letter to Maurice Faure, Junior Foreign Minister and Head of the French Delegation to the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, in which he expresses French industrialists’ fear of the economic competition which will arise within the European Economic Community (EEC) and proposes the establishment of a European organisation with the task of monitoring the terms for the establishment of the Common Market, with particular regard to the harmonisation of social security and employers’ contributions.

In an interview conducted on 26 March 1997 in Brussels during the commemorative events held to mark the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), Jean-François Deniau, former member of the French delegation to the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, discusses the implications for France of the Rome Treaties

On 1 March 1957, commenting on the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) on 25 March in Rome, the German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung considers the impact of the provisions governing the Common Market on the German economy in the context of world trade.

On 18 March 1957, the German economic daily newspaper Handelsblatt outlines the weaknesses of the future European Economic Community (EEC), with particular regard to the implications of free trade in Europe.

On 22 March 1957, three days before the signing in Rome of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), the German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung describes the tenor of the debates in the Bundestag on the European treaties and on the establishment of a Common Market.

In June 1957, Fernand Baudhuin, Professor of Economics at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), describes the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) as a powerful, successful country and outlines the implications, particularly for France, of its participation in the European Economic Community (EEC).

In an interview conducted on 26 March 1997 in Brussels during the commemorative events held to mark the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), Jean-François Deniau, former member of the French delegation to the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, explains the agreement adopted during the Val Duchesse negotiations on trade relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

On 24 February 1957, the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir considers the position of Italy in the light of the economic and political challenges of the European Economic Community (EEC).

On 8 March 1957, commenting on the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC), the Italian Communist daily newspaper L'Unità analyses the implications of a future Common Market for European workers.

On 5 March 1957, the Italian daily newspaper Il nuovo Corriere della Sera describes how the Italian economy is preparing to apply the provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), particularly in the agricultural domain.