Messina Conference

The Messina Conference was a conference of the foreign ministers of the countries of the European Coal and Steel Community . June 1955 in Messina , Sicily, on the initiative of the Benelux countries .

Participants were the Foreign Ministers of Italy Gaetano Martino , the Netherlands Jan Willem Beyen , France Antoine Pinay , Luxembourg Joseph Bech , Belgium Paul-Henri Spaak and, on the part of the Federal Republic of Germany, the then State Secretary in the Foreign Office, Walter Hallstein . Even Great Britain was invited, but declined.

Result of the conference

The conference started in a rather negative climate, as the French parliament had rejected the European Defense Community Treaty shortly before . The first two days were therefore not particularly auspicious, but on the third day, surprisingly, the conference came to a happy conclusion with the Resolution of Messina .

With this resolution, the six nations declared the main features and the intention of establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) and the European internal market and agreed concrete steps for the realization of these plans, which led to the signing of the Treaty of Rome (EURATOM Treaty) within just two years in 1957 and the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC)).

In this way, the experience of the ECSC that progress in the economic field was the most likely to be consensual became true . In the period that followed, an intergovernmental conference led by Spaak worked out the treaties for the EEC and Euratom .

Work assignment to the Spaak committee

A study committee headed by Paul-Henri Spaak was commissioned “to examine the possibility of further economic integration, including nuclear energy”. The Spaak report submitted in 1956 recommended “overall economic integration with special rules for the peaceful use of nuclear energy”.

The committee report made it clear that for a common market the national markets would have to merge and a customs union had to be established. The report contained several directional suggestions

different stages of the common market including transition periods;
Community organs (Council of Ministers, a European Commission with its own rights, a Court of Justice, a Parliamentary Assembly), which should be recruited from the existing organs.

Messina myth

Because of the great difficulties at first and how they were overcome, the spirit of Messina is still used today when it comes to overcoming difficult moments in relations between the member states of the European Union. This phase (1955–1958) is also called "Relance Européenne".