The Treaty of Rome 60 years on: are the founding fathers still relevant to today?

60 years ago this month, six European governments signed the Treaty of Rome which created the EEC and Euratom. This was the forerunner of today’s European Union. As the UK prepares to leave the EU and we witness varieties of euroscepticism across Europe, was the original conception of European integration misconceived from the start? Are there other lessons to be drawn from today?

Étienne Davignon joined the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1959 and was an attaché under Paul-Henri Spaak, then Minister of Foreign Affairs and one of the founding fathers of the European Union. He later became the first Head of the International Energy Agency and Vice President of the European Economic Community's Commission and Commissioner for Industry.

Professor Dame Helen Wallace is an expert in European Studies and was Centennial Professor at the LSE European Institute from 2007 to 2010. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in June 2000.

Kevin Featherstone is Head of the LSE European Institute and Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies 

The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

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