- Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom
The Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom was held in
Brussels , it started on26 June 1956 with a session in the Grand Salon of the Belgian Foreign Ministry. The negotiations went on at theCastle of the Valley of the Duchess inAuderghem (Brussels) and would continue until March 1957. The conference was held to draft the Treaties establishing theEuropean Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom). The conference built on the results of theSpaak Report of theSpaak Committee and the decision taken at theVenice Conference to prepare the plan for the establishment of acommon market and the establishment of a European Community for the peaceful use of atomic energy.The conference was headed by
Paul-Henri Spaak , Belgian Foreign Minister, the heads of the delegations from the sixEuropean Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) wereLodovico Benvenuti (Italy ), BaronJean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers (Belgium ),Karl Friedrich Ophüls (Federal Republic of Germany ),Maurice Faure (France ),Johan Linthorst Homan (Netherlands ) andLambert Schaus (Luxembourg ).The 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 threeBeNeLux countries, with their export oriented economies, favoured economicliberalism and wanted to reducecustom duties in order to lower the barriers fortrade between the participating countries. On the other side stoodFrance andItaly , with their less competitive economies, who were primarily in favour of a mechanism formarket regulation and a certain amount of protection for external competition. France wanted some way to include itsAfrica n colonial in the forthcoming European common market. The participants of the conference could not reach a satisfactory agreement on a commonagricultural policy , but the outcome of the conference provided for improvement in productivity, self-sufficiency in food for the community and the establishment of an adequateincome forfarmer s.Euratom
The negotiations on
Euratom were complicated by the French opposition against any power of Euratom on the military use of nuclear power. This might hinder the acquisition ofnuclear weapons forFrance . France wanted to share the cost of the development of civil nuclear research with Euratom, which of course would free financial resources for its own military nuclear research. Although the other countries were reluctant to accept this stance, in the end they agreed to leave the military use of nuclear research out of the treaty, but made it subject to international controls. TheUSA also opposed the emergence of an independent European nuclear force.The
Suez crisis 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 being signed on25 March 1957 which established theEuropean Economic Community (EEC) and theEuropean Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) among the members of the ECSC.ee also
*
History of the European Union
*Spaak method
*Ohlin Report ource
* [http://www.ena.lu/europe/19571968-successes-crises/negotiations-eec-euratom-brussels-1956.htm Negotiations on the EEC and Euratom]
* [http://europa.eu/scadplus/treaties/euratom_en.htm Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community]
* 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
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.