"Today, the Treaties of Rome of 1957 show the success of a political method that revived the European integration after the failure of the common defence project in 1954. The new strategy succeeded in starting a process that involved several economic sectors and at the same time located supranational bodies with increasing credibility and areas of jurisdiction". This is the opinion given by Hanns Jurgen Kusters, lecturers in political science and contemporary history at the University of Bonn, in his review of the Treaty of Rome which is the focus of the workshop organised by Comece (Commission of the EU Bishops Conferences) ending in Clermont Ferrand today, about the event of which Comece will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary in 2007. "In agreement with the respective Parliaments added Kusters with reference to the Treaty of Rome some powers were taken from the national governments and transferred in different ways to the EU bodies, while taking care of the common good of the individuals and the whole community". From such a perspective, according to Frenchman Philippe Herzog, a former EU MP and president of "Confrontations sur l’Europe", the future will have to move along two priority lines: "The strengthening of the culture of otherness, and the awareness that the deep socio-economic changes demand a new, common political understanding".
