SPEECH by Mr Wilfried MARTENS,
Chairman of the Group of the EPP
on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome

ROME, 3 March 1997

Speech by Wilfried MARTENS:

Presidents of the Assemblies,
President of the Council,
Mr Mayor,
Colleagues,

The European Parliament's Group of the European People's Party very much wished to hold a meeting today on Capitoline, the historical heart of the Eternal City, in order to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the act which laid the foundations for the European Community: on 25 March 1957, in the Horatii and Curiatii Room of this Palace, the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the six founder members of the ECSC decided to take a further decisive step towards European unification. Those who were present on that day will recall that throughout the city there were posters bearing the words of Alcide de Gasperi: 'Six peoples, a single family, for the good of all'.

To understand the significance of the Treaty of Rome, the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Committee (Euratom), we need to view them in the context of the period to which they belong. The signing of the Treaty of Rome was the outcome of an initiative which had been launched on 2 June 1995 at Messina to overcome the setback represented by the failure of the European Defence Community a few months earlier. The rejection of the plans for a European army had plunged Europe into crisis. Following an initiative on the part of the three Benelux countries, an intergovernmental committee chaired by Paul-Henri Spaak had set about translating into legal terms the political resolution adopted at Messina. The Six had stated their intention to 'take a further step towards European integration - initially in the economic field - and to seek to establish a united Europe through the development of common institutions, the gradual merging of national economies, the establishment of a common market and the gradual harmonization of social policies'.

This was highly ambitious and it confirms that the founding fathers - those who established the ECSC on the basis of the Schuman plan and the European Community on the basis of the Treaty of Rome - were inspired by a political vision. The interrelationships which developed as a result of the spectacular success of the common market made the peoples of Europe aware of the advantages to be derived from membership of the same community. Between 1958 and 1970, intra-Community trade increased by a factor of six, whereas in EEC trade with third countries the increase was only threefold. Over the same period, average GDP increased by 70%. Such achievements were made possible by the opening up of borders. However, the Treaty of Rome also contained the seeds for further developments: the progressive unification of customs arrangements vis-à-vis third countries, the harmonization of the Member States' social, economic and financial policies, the free movement of labour, the establishment of competition rules to prevent discrimination against other Member States, the implementation of other policies, particularly in the agricultural field, the prospect of generating own resources to be allocated to a separate budget, and so on.

There are two main reasons for this success. The first is that, in accordance with the spirit of the Schuman plan, the authors of the Treaty of Rome deliberately established strong, balanced institutions. The Community's institutional system ensures that national interests are complementary to the Community interest (and vice-versa) by means of a sophisticated decision-making structure involving the Commission, the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament and the Court of Justice. Because sovereignty has actually been transferred to these institutions the Community has been able to develop and provide an effective response to age-old reflexes which tend to favour national self-centredness and short-term considerations. In pursuit of the common interest the original six Member States gradually learned to increase their influence and extend their cooperation.

The second reason is that the governments of the time were able to overcome a serious crisis which could have jeopardized the very existence of the European Community. A plan had been devised to absorb the embryonic European Economic Community into a larger free-trade area which was purely commercial in nature and included neither own institutions, common policies, legislative harmonization, rules on competition nor structural measures designed to correct regional imbalances and create interdependence.

The matter was fiercely contested but was finally resolved in February 1959 thanks to the determination of the six EEC Member States who, despite being accused of forming a 'little Europe', remained steadfast and applied the Treaty of Rome.

Their efforts were highly successful. The European Community was sufficiently strong to withstand the crises which punctuated its years of growth, in particular the 1965 institutional crisis in which one Member State challenged the principle of majority voting within the Council of Ministers. The Community has also been a sufficiently attractive proposition to prompt other countries to apply for membership and it underwent enlargement in 1973 to take in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, in 1981 to take in Greece, in 1986 to take in Spain and Portugal and, most recently, in 1995 to take in Sweden, Finland and Austria.

However, commemorating the past is pointless unless it enables us to learn valuable lessons and gain experience which will help us conduct European policy over the coming years. The message handed down by the authors of the Treaty of Rome is as valid as ever. Although the nature of the challenges may have changed (because the Cold War has been consigned to history, because trade liberation and the creation of a large internal market were achieved through the implementation of the 1986 Single Act, because the monetary union which will put the finishing touch to the common market is nearing completion), other needs have become apparent. These needs are primarily political since they correspond to the wishes of the peoples in Central and Eastern Europe who were for a long time cut off from developments in Western Europe and who now want to link their destiny to ours.

The need for joint efforts to reduce the scourge of unemployment through a revival of economic growth and the combining of measures by the individual Member States with appropriate Community action is one of the imperatives which we must accept if we wish to lay the foundations for a new Europe. As Europeans and Christian Democrats we are the bearers of the torch which the original founding fathers have passed on to us and our responsibility is equally great. As in 1957, we are faced with major challenges, the outcome of which depends primarily on the political will of those who hold the reins of power. The transition from a 15-member European Union to one with over 25 members in the course of the next ten years could threaten the very existence of the structure which has been patiently built up and consolidated over a period of more than half a century. Such a threat could have fatal consequences if we do not remain firmly attached to the conviction that what we are involved in remains above all a political undertaking based on a moral vision of humanity and a desire for a better future for our civilization.

If we are not sufficiently aware of the threats to European integration which are posed by the onslaught of economic globalization and the clash of cultures which tempt us fatally to turn in on ourselves and succumb to nationalistic reflexes, Europe could cease to exist as a community. If we allow our concept of a European Union to be reduced to that of an economic area governed solely by the laws of the market we will be incapable of providing the peoples of Europe with the kind of response they are looking for in their search for meaning. If we do not implement a proper common foreign and security policy as soon as possible, Europe will be reduced to playing no more than a peripheral role in world affairs.

One thought is constantly with me: what major collective project providing a source of faith and enthusiasm for each of us in the coming century would we devise if we did not still have the task of achieving a united Europe and perpetuating the state of peace and harmony amongst our peoples in which we are privileged to live? How would future generations judge ours if we did not take the decisions now which will enable a strong, structured, democratic Europe to emerge which is capable of consolidating stability within the continent and of enabling its people to thrive within a prosperous whole? The Intergovernmental Conference which is currently underway and which should come to its conclusions next June in Amsterdam is certainly not the final stage in the journey which began here. But let us make no mistake regarding the importance of the issues at stake and let us draw from the spirit of the founding fathers who came together in this magnificent hall on the Capitoline on a fine spring day in 1957 bequeathed the necessary inspiration and sufficient determination to continue the task which they have bequeathed us.

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