The Messina Conference of 1955 was a meeting of the six member states of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The conference assessed the progress of the ECSC and, deciding that it was working well, proposed further European integration. This initiative led to the creation in 1957 of 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 Lis ...

and

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 ...

. The conference was held from 1 to 3 June 1955 at the Italian city of

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in t ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, in the City Hall building known as Palazzo Zanca ( it). It was a meeting of the foreign ministers of all six member states of the ECSC, and it would lead to the creation of the

. The delegations of the six participating countries were headed by

Johan Willem Beyen Johan Willem "Wim" Beyen (2 May 1897 – 29 April 1976) was a Dutch politician and diplomat of Liberal signature and businessman. Beyen played an important role in the creation of the European Economic Community and is regarded as one of the Foun ...

(Netherlands), Gaetano Martino (Italy), Joseph Bech (Luxembourg), Antoine Pinay (France), Walter Hallstein (Germany), and Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium). Joseph Bech was chairman of the meeting. The Foreign Ministers of the ECSC had to meet in order to nominate a member of the High Authority of the ECSC and to appoint its new president and vice-presidents for the period expiring on 10 February 1957. The meeting was held at Messina (and partially in

Taormina Taormina ( , , also , ; scn, Taurmina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina, on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy. Taormina has been a tourist destination since the 19th century. Its beaches on ...

) at the request of Gaetano Martino, the Italian Foreign Minister, who was detained in Sicily because of the Regional Assembly elections. They appointed René Mayer as president of the High Authority to replace

Jean Monnet Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet (; 9 November 1888 – 16 March 1979) was a French civil servant, entrepreneur, diplomat, financier, administrator, and political visionary. An influential supporter of European unity, he is considered one of the ...

. The ministers also reappointed the Belgian,

Albert Coppé Albert Coppé (26 November 1911 in Bruges – 30 March 1999 in Tervuren) was a Belgian and European politician and economist. Biography Born in Bruges on 26 November 1911, Coppé was a founding member of the CVP party and served in the Eur ...

, and the German,

Franz Etzel Franz Etzel (12 August 1902 – 9 May 1970) was a German politician of the CDU. Etzel was born in Wesel, Rhine Province. From 1949 to 4 January 1953 and from 1957 to 1965 Etzel was member of the German Bundestag. From 1957 to 1961 he was Minis ...

, as vice-presidents of the college. Municipio di messina

In addition to the above-mentioned agenda, the meeting included consideration of the action programme to relaunch

European integration European integration is the process of industrial, economic, political, legal, social, and cultural integration of states wholly or partially in Europe or nearby. European integration has primarily come about through the European Union and its ...

. In August 1954 the plans had collapsed to create a European Political Community and a common defence force, the

European Defence Community The Treaty establishing the European Defence Community, also known as the Treaty of Paris, is an unratified treaty signed on 27 May 1952 by the six 'inner' countries of European integration: the Benelux countries, France, Italy, and West German ...

, as a substitute for the national armies of Germany, France, Italy, 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 ...

countries, when France refused to ratify the treaty. The six ECSC countries then turned their attention to the idea of a

customs union A customs union is generally defined as a type of trade bloc which is composed of a free trade area with a common external tariff.GATTArticle 24 s. 8 (a) Customs unions are established through trade pacts where the participant countries set up ...

, which was elaborated at Messina. The final resolution of the conference, largely reflecting the point of view of the three Benelux countries, formed the basis for further work to relaunch European integration. The Benelux countries in their BeNeLux memorandum proposed a revival of European integration on the basis of a common market and integration in the transport and atomic energy sectors.Raymond F. Mikesell, "The Lessons of Benelux and the European Coal and Steel Community for the European Economic Community", ''The American Economic Review'', Vol. 48, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Seventieth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May 1958), pp. 428–441 At first the name of Paul van Zeeland, former Belgian Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, was mentioned to head the committee which was to work out a proposal.

however proposed Paul-Henri Spaak, who was entrusted, on 18 June, with the production of a report at an ''Intergovernmental Committee'' in order to evaluate the option of a sectoral integration or the step-by-step establishment of a European common market. The Spaak Report of the Spaak Committee and the subsequent

Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom {{EU history The Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom was held in Brussels 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-Duc ...

which was held at the

Château of Val-Duchesse The Château of Val-Duchesse (french: Château de Val-Duchesse, nl, Kasteel van Hertoginnedal) is a mansion and estate situated in the municipality of Auderghem in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. The château, which occupies the site o ...

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 sign ...

in 1957 and the formation of the

and

in 1958. In commemoration of the conference, the square in front of Messina's Palazzo Zanca was renamed ''Piazza Unione Europea'', and on 2 June 1995 a monumental commemorative plaque was inserted on the building's main façade. A statue of Gaetano Martino was erected nearby on 25 November 2000, the centenary of his birth.

References

Sources

Messina Conference
on CVCE.eu (Centre virtuel de la connaissance sur l'Europe)

(EU) Available on CVCE.eu

(EU) Available on CVCE.eu
How Divided Europe Came Together
(BBC)
Messina Conference
(picture) {{Messina 1955 conferences 1955 in Italy 1955 in the European Economic Community History of the European Union June 1955 events in Europe Messina

See also

References

Sources