It all began in 1950

“Peace and stability, freedom and democracy, prosperity, employment and growth”: these are the shared values and real results that European citizens are celebrating on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. It’s a half-century of integration that represents the most important process of pacification and cooperation in the history of humanity. Let us trace the main stages of this process down to the present day. FIRST STEP. On 9 May 1950 French Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Schuman formulated the proposal of pooling at the European level the production and marketing of coal and steel, the raw materials for the industry of war. This was the first formal step of European integration. Not by chance has 9 May been designated “Europe Day”, in memory of the Schuman Declaration. Thanks to the impulse of such personalities as Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasperi, Jean Monnet and Paul-Henry Spaak, six governments – Belgium. France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Holland – lent their support to the Schuman plan and signed the founding Treaty of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in Paris on 18 April 1951. THE EEC. The plan for a European Defence Community, embryo of a political Europe, foundered in 1954. In the following year, however, the Foreign Ministers of the 6 founding nations formulated, in rough outline, a plan for a European Economic Community (EEC). The founding treaties of both the EEC and EURATOM, the European Atomic Energy Community, were signed on the Capitol in Rome on 25 March 1957. PHASE OF STALEMATE. In August 1961 the Berlin Wall was erected, an event that, together with the British decision not to join the European Community, confirmed a phase of stalemate in political unification within a continent divided by the Cold War. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was adopted in 1962. The European Community signed the first international cooperation accord with the ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) in 1963. 1968 was the year of the abolition of customs duties between member states, the first step towards the single currency and the mechanism of limited exchange oscillation introduced in 1972. GROWING MEMBERSHIP. A phase of new accessions was inaugurated. In 1973 Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined the European Community; they were followed by Greece (1981), Portugal and Spain (1986), Austria, Finland and Sweden (1995). More recently (2004) eight countries in Central and Eastern Europe (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary), together with Cyprus and Malta, entered the EU en bloc. Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in January 2007, bringing total membership to 27. THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT. 1974 was the year of the creation of the European Fund of Regional Development, financial instrument for controlling cohesion policy and promoting the development of the poorer regions of the Community. In 1979 the Europe of citizens made its first breakthrough with the elections by direct universal suffrage for the European Parliament. The powers of the EP were reinforced by the European Single Act of 1986, which also defined European powers in the field of the protection of the environment and the liberalization of trade. THE UNION. The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in 1991/92 led to a period of institutional reforms. The Treaty of Maastricht was signed in 1992: a turning point for the single currency, external policy, common security, and cooperation on justice and internal affairs: at Maastricht the European Community formally adopted the name “European Union”. The Schengen Accord on the opening of frontiers came into force in 1995. The Treaty of Amsterdam was signed in 1997; it increased the external powers of the EU and reinforced its role in the field of employment and citizens’ rights. On 1st January 1999 Europe celebrated the introduction of the euro for financial transactions, followed by the circulation of euro coins and banknotes in 11 “pioneer” states at the beginning of 2002. The change of century was marked by the signing of the Treaty of Nice – it defined the current institutional architecture and introduced the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU – and by the adoption of the Lisbon Strategy with the ambitious objective of “turning the EU into the world’s most dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010”; the Goteborg Strategy of 2002 added to Lisbon the chapters on sustainable development and environmental protection. DOUBTS OVER THE CONSTITUTION. At the end of 18 months of intensive work dedicated to reorganizing the Treaties and defining the powers and functioning of the enlarged Europe, the Convention on the Future of Europe presented its draft Constitutional Treaty, signed by the heads of state and of government in October 2004: in spite of the uninterrupted process of ratification by national Parliaments, the adoption of the EU Constitution remains in doubt following its rejection in the referenda in France and Holland.