On 25 March 1957, in Rome, the representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands sign the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom). The signatories are: Konrad Adenauer and Walter Hallstein (FRG), Paul-Henri Spaak and Baron Jean-Charles Snoy et d’Oppuers (Belgium), Christian Pineau and Maurice Faure (France), Antonio Segni and Gaetano Martino (Italy), Joseph Bech and Lambert Schaus (Luxembourg) and Joseph Luns and Johannes Linthorst Homan (Netherlands).
On 4 April 1957, Force Ouvrière, the trade union weekly publication of the General Confederation of Labour-Workers’ Force (CGT-FO), illustrates the importance of the Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) for the six signatory countries.
In this interview excerpt, Édouard Molitor, employed for services in the General Secretariat of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) from 1956 to 1959, shares his memories of the signing ceremony for the Rome Treaties on 25 March 1957, emphasising the fact that the drafting of the treaties was not actually finished when the ceremony took place. Édouard Molitor also describes the logistics associated with the finalisation of the Rome Treaties, particularly the translation and printing of the final versions.
On 3 October 1957, Joseph Luns, Netherlands Foreign Minister, gives an address to the Second Chamber of the Netherlands in which he outlines to the members of parliament the reasons why he is in favour of ratification of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), despite its shortcomings.
In 1981, Pierre Pescatore, former Legal Adviser to the Luxembourg Foreign Minister and member of the Drafting Group at the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at the Château de Val Duchesse, recalls the role of the Committee and the nature of its activities, including the drafting of the general provisions and the legal editing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).
On 25 March 1957, in Rome, Joseph Bech, Luxembourg Foreign Minister, takes part in the ceremony held to mark the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom). The day before the ceremony, he makes the most of the opportunity to capture, with his own camera, this colour film of the ‘Eternal City’ and of the official reception organised by the Italian Government at the Quirinal Palace and at the Villa Madama in honour of the negotiators of and signatories to the Treaties.
On 25 March 1957, during the ceremony held in Rome to mark the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, delivers an address in which he outlines the historic importance of the new Treaties for the process of European integration.
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