Rome history: Treaty of Rome, 1957

The “Treaty of Rome“, officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, was signed on 25 March 1957 in the “Orazi e Curiazi hall” of Palazzo dei Conservatori, which currently houses the Capitoline Museums, by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany and came into force on 1 January 1958.

The most important measure was the creation of the so-called “single market“: the basis for subsequent political unity. The treaty, still considered one of the “pillars” of European legislation, was later modified a first time after the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, and a second time with the Lisbon Treaty of 2007.

The Treaty of Rome also established the prohibition of monopolies, some transport common policies, and the grant of some commercial privileges to the colonial territories of the member States.

The Treaty affirmed in its preamble that signatory States were “determined to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe“.
In this way, the member States specifically affirmed the political objective of a progressive political integration.

The Treaty of Rome signified the triumph of a very realistic and gradualist approach to building the EU.