195725 March 1957 · Rome

Treaty of Rome and the European Economic Community

The Palazzo dei Conservatori on Rome's Capitoline Hill, where the Treaty of Rome was signed — Photo: Codex. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Leaders of Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed two treaties in a frescoed hall of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill, creating the European Economic Community and Euratom. The common market launched in 1958, built on postwar reconciliation between France and Germany, grew through later treaties into today's European Union.