Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom
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{{EU history The Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom was held in
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
and started on 26 June 1956 with a session in the Grand Salon of the Belgian Foreign Ministry. The negotiations went on at the Château of Val-Duchesse in
Auderghem Auderghem (former Dutch spelling, now used in French; pronounced ) or Oudergem () is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium). Located to the southeast of the region, along the Woluwe valley and at the entrance to t ...
(Brussels) and would continue until March 1957. The conference was held to draft the Treaties establishing the
European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
(EEC) and the
European Atomic Energy Community The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) is an international organisation established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nucl ...
(EAEC or Euratom). The conference built on the results of the
Spaak Report The Spaak Report or ''Brussels Report on the General Common Market'' is the report drafted by the Spaak Committee in 1956. The Intergovernmental Committee, headed by Paul-Henri Spaak, presented its definitive report on 21 April 1956 to the six gove ...
of the
Spaak Committee The Spaak Committee was an Intergovernmental Committee set up by the Foreign Ministers of the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) as a result of the Messina Conference of 1955. The Spaak Committee started its work on ...
and the decision taken at the
Venice Conference {{EU history The Venice Conference was held in Venice on 29 and 30 May 1956. The Foreign Ministers of the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community met at the San Giorgio Monastery, Cini Foundation on the Venetian island of San Gio ...
to prepare the plan for the establishment of a
common market The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...
and the establishment of a European Community for the peaceful use of atomic energy. The conference was headed by
Paul-Henri Spaak Paul-Henri Charles Spaak (; 25 January 1899 – 31 July 1972) was an influential Belgian Socialist politician, diplomat and statesman. Along with Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer he was a leader in the formation of the ...
, Belgian Foreign Minister, the heads of the delegations from the six
European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to regulate the coal and steel industries. It was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, signed by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembo ...
(ECSC) were Lodovico Benvenuti (Italy), Count
Jean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers Jean V Charles, Count Snoy et d'Oppuers (2 July 1907 in Braine-l'Alleud – 17 May 1991) was a Belgian civil servant, diplomat and Christian Democratic politician of the PSC-CVP. Family Jean-Charles was born son of Thierry Idesbald, Ba ...
(Belgium), Karl Friedrich Ophüls (Federal Republic of Germany),
Maurice Faure Maurice Faure (2 January 1922 – 6 March 2014) was a member of the French Resistance and a minister in several French governments. He was born in Azerat, Dordogne. He was a deputy in the French parliament from 1951 to 1983 and a Senator from ...
(France), Johan Linthorst Homan (Netherlands) and
Lambert Schaus Lambert Schaus (18 January 1908 – 10 August 1976) was a Luxembourg politician, jurist, and diplomat. He held office as a government minister and European Commissioner. Schaus was born in Luxembourg City to a jeweller. He studied jurispruden ...
(Luxembourg).


Common market

The basic principle of the common market was agreed upon by the six ECSC members, but there was wide disagreement about the procedures for its implementation. Both Germany and the three
Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: B ...
countries, with their export-oriented economies, favoured
economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism ...
and wanted to reduce
custom duties Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ha ...
in order to lower the barriers for trade between the participating countries. On the other side stood France and Italy, with their less competitive economies, which were primarily in favour of a mechanism for market regulation and a certain amount of protection for external competition. France wanted some way to include its African colonial in the forthcoming European common market. The participants of the conference could not reach a satisfactory agreement on a common agricultural
policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organ ...
, but the outcome of the conference provided for improvement in productivity, self-sufficiency in food for the community and the establishment of an adequate
income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For ...
for farmers.


Euratom

The negotiations on
Euratom The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) is an international organisation established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nucl ...
were complicated by the French opposition against any power of Euratom on the military use of nuclear power that might hinder the acquisition of
nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
s for France. France wanted to share the cost of the development of civil nuclear research with Euratom, which would free financial resources for its own military nuclear research. Although the other countries were reluctant to accept that stance, in the end they agreed to leave the military use of nuclear research out of the treaty, subject to international controls. The US also opposed the emergence of an independent European nuclear force. The
Suez crisis The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...
of 1956, which exposed the vulnerability of Europe regarding its energy supplies had an influence on the negotiations.


Outcome

The conference would lead to the
Treaties of Rome The Treaty of Rome, or EEC Treaty (officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community), brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the best known of the European Communities (EC). The treaty was sig ...
being signed on 25 March 1957. They established the
European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
(EEC) and the
European Atomic Energy Community The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) is an international organisation established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nucl ...
(Euratom) among the members of the ECSC.


See also

*
History of the European Union The European Union is a geo-political entity covering a large portion of the European continent. It is founded upon numerous treaties and has undergone expansions and secessions that have taken it from six member states to 27, a majority of th ...
*
BeNeLux memorandum, 1955 The Benelux memorandum of 1955 was a document drafted by the three Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg) on 18 May 1955 as a means to reviving European integration on the basis of a general common market. Background The failure ...
*
Spaak method The Spaak method of negotiation is named after Paul-Henri Spaak, a Belgian politician, who applied this method at the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom in 1956 at Val Duchesse castle in preparing for the Treaties of Rome ...
*
Ohlin Report The Ohlin Report was a report drafted by a group of experts of the International Labour Organization led by Bertil Ohlin in 1956. Together with the Spaak Report it provided the basis for the Treaty of Rome on the common market in 1957 and the cre ...


Sources


Negotiations on the EEC and Euratom


* Raymond Bertrand, ''The European Common Market Proposal'', International Organization, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Nov. 1956), pp. 559–574. * Pierre-Henri Laurent, ''Paul-Henri Spaak and the Diplomatic Origins of the Common Market, 1955–1956'', Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 85, No. 3 (Sep. 1970), pp. 373–396 European Union History of the European Union European Atomic Energy Community