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| Image from Financial Review |
Author: Stefania Guzzo
On 25 March 2017, the EU Member States have celebrated
the 60th Anniversary of Rome Treaties, the international agreement that brought to the creation of the
European Economic Community that represented the starting point of the
European integration process. In the frame of Rome, the “eternal city”, the 27
national leaders recalled the stages of an adventure undertaken by the six
pioneering countries when on 25 March 1957, the representatives of Belgium,
West Germany, Italy, Netherland, France and Luxembourg signed the Treaties of
Rome also known as the Treaties of the European Community (TEC): the EEC
(European Economic Community) and the EAEC (the European Atomic Energy
Community, also known as Euratom).
The declaration of Robert Shuman - "Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity” – represents this aim.
"Today, we
celebrate the perseverance and the cleverness of EU's founding fathers, which
has its best proof in this crowded hall"- Italian prime
minister Paolo Gentiloni said in his
opening speech in the very place where the Treaty of Rome was signed 60 years
ago. In
his speech, Gentiloni also recalled the several achievements of the European
integration project, while acknowledging that EU has found itself unprepared
and responded late before major recent challenges such as migration, economic
crisis, and unemployment among others.
"We don't
want a divided Europe!" - Gentiloni said -
"Europe is united and indivisible, but we want to move forward on a common
idea of Europe in areas such as defence, security. We need greater integration
and we claim a global role for Europe".
The event marks the foundations of our
Europe. The celebration intends to remind to the citizens the main aim of the founding fathers: to bring peace and development in Europe after the second world war. The declaration of Robert Shuman - "Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity” – represents this aim.
Many
steps further has been made by the EU Member States after the foundation of the
European Community: the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989),
