1.1.1.     The first Treaties

LEGAL BASIS

• The Treaty of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), or Treaty of Paris, was signed on 18 April 1951 and came into force on 25 July 1952. For the first time, a group of states agreed to work towards integration. The Treaty made it possible to lay the foundations of the Community by setting up a 'High Authority', a Parliamentary Assembly, a Council of Ministers, a Court of Justice and a Consultative Committee.
• The Treaties of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC, otherwise known as 'Euratom'), or the Treaties of Rome, were signed on 25 March 1957 and came into force on 1 January 1958. Although the EAEC Treaty was concluded for 50 years (Art. 97), the Treaties of Rome were concluded 'for an unlimited period' (Art. 240 of the EEC Treaty and Art. 208 of the EAEC Treaty), which gives them almost a constitutional character.
• The six founding countries were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

OBJECTIVES

• The avowed intentions of the founders of the ECSC were that it should be merely a first stage towards a 'European Federation'. The common market in coal and steel was to be an experiment which could gradually be extended to other economic spheres, culminating in a 'political' Europe.
• The aim of the European Economic Community was to establish a common market based on the four freedoms of movement of goods, persons, capital and services and the gradual convergence of economic policies.
• The aim of Euratom was to coordinate the research programmes on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, already under way or being prepared in the Member States.
• The preambles of the three Treaties reveal a unity of purpose behind the creation of the Communities, namely, the conviction that the states of Europe must work together to build a common future as this alone will enable them to control their destiny.

MAIN PRINCIPLES - THE EEC TREATY TAKES THE LEAD

The European Communities (the ECSC, EEC and Euratom) were born of a gradual process of thinking about Europe, an idea that was closely bound up with the events that had shattered the continent. In the wake of the Second World War the major industries, in particular the steel industry, needed reorganising. The future of Europe, threatened by East-West confrontation, lay in Franco-German reconciliation.

1. The appeal made by Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister, on 9 May 1950 may be considered as the starting point for the Community. At that time, the choice of coal and steel was highly symbolic: in the early 1950s coal and steel were still seen as vital industries, the basis of a country's power. In addition to the clear economic benefits to be gained, the pooling of French and German resources was to mark the end of antagonism between the two countries. On 9 May 1950 Robert Schuman declared: 'Europe will not be built in a day nor as part of some overall design; it will be built through practical achievements that first create a sense of common purpose'. It was on the basis of that principle that France, Italy, Germany and the Benelux countries signed the Treaty of Paris, of which the main points were:

• the free movement of products and free access to sources of production;
• permanent monitoring of the market to avoid distortions which could lead to the introduction of production quotas;
• respect for the rules of competition and price transparency;
• support for modernisation and conversion of the coal and steel sectors.

2. Following the signing of the treaty, although France was opposed to the reconstitution of a German national military force, René Pleven envisaged the formation of a European army. The European Defence Community (EDC) negotiated in 1952 was to have been accompanied by a political Community (EPC). Both plans were shelved following the French National Assembly's refusal to ratify the treaty on 30 August 1954.

3. Efforts to get the process of European integration under way again following the failure of the EDC took the form of specific proposals at the Messina Conference (in June 1955) on a customs union and atomic energy. They culminated in the signing of the EEC and EAEC Treaties.

a. The EEC Treaty’s provisions included:

• the elimination of customs duties between Member States;
• the establishment of an external Common Customs Tariff;
• the introduction of a common policy for agriculture and transport;
• the creation of a European Social Fund;
• establishment of a European Investment Bank;
• the development of closer relations between the Member States.

To achieve these objectives the EEC Treaty laid down guiding principles and defined the framework for the legislative activities of the Community institutions. These involved common policies: the common agricultural policy (Articles 38 to 43), transport policy (Articles 74 to 75) and a common commercial policy (Articles 110 to 113).

The common market was to allow the free movement of goods and the mobility of factors of production (free movement of workers and enterprises, the freedom to provide services and the free movement of capital).

b. The Euratom Treaty laid down highly ambitious objectives, including the ‘speedy establishment and growth of nuclear industries'. However, owing to the complex and delicate nature of the nuclear sector, which touched on the vital interests of the Member States (defence and national independence), the Euratom Treaty had to scale down its ambitions.

4. The Agreement on certain joint institutions, which was signed and entered into force at the same time as the Treaties of Rome, stipulated that the Parliamentary Assembly and Court of Justice would be common institutions. It only remained to merge the 'executives', and the agreement of 9 April 1965 thereby completed the unification of the institutions.

From that time onwards, the EEC became more prominent than the ECSC and the EAEC (the sectoral Communities). It represented a triumph for the general purpose and institutions of the EEC over the two coexisting sectoral organisations.

06/09/2000