Messina Conference (1-3 June)

The Foreign Ministers of the six ECSC countries met in Messina on 1 June 1955 and assigned a committee of government representatives (chaired by former Belgian Prime Minister Paul-Henri Spaak) to study the possibility of creating a common European market. The meeting in Messina represented a “restart” of European [integration] building and an effort to renew dialogue. However, it took two years of negotiations to conclude on 25 March 1957 with the Treaties of Rome, which established the European Economic Community (Common Market) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).