Notre Europe's viewpoint | 16/02/2007 

Signed on 25 March 1957 by six member states, the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community. The creation of the EEC, following the European Coal and Steel Community, was a founding moment in the most extraordinary political project of the 20th century - one which brought lasting peace to Europe after centuries of war. On 25 March 2007 the EU heads of government adopted a declaration in Berlin, while Rome was host to a rally of Europe's young people. And in France? Nôtre Europe co-organised, on 17 March in Lille, the First European Estates General.

Workshops and plenary sessions brought together people of diverse backgrounds in politics, civil society, the trade unions and business. We discussed the successes and failures of fifty years of European integration, and the steps that need to be taken today and tomorrow if we are to remain proud to be European. For nothing can be taken for granted, as Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa reminds us in an article published in The Federalist. Europe is not at peace, he says, it is simply enjoying a ceasefire; and the EU will never be a genuine Union as long as member states do not consider "staying together" to be the fundamental criterion in their political choices - including those on whether to use their veto.

Franco-German reconciliation was at the heart of the European construction: what has become of it today? One of the two countries voted yes, the other no. One is bogged down in presidential elections, the other obliged to remain impartial on European questions due to its presidency of the EU Council. Can the Franco-German duo contribute towards the revitalisation of Europe? A seminar on 1 March, organised by the Hanns Seidel Stiftung and the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, attempted to answer this question. Beyond the celebrations and the practical considerations of how to revitalise Europe, many other more existential questions are still in need of responses. For example, the eternal dilemma over enlargement versus deepening, expressed today in the debate over the EU's "capacity for integration". Aurélien Hassin's research note reminds us that this idea of "absorption capacity" is not new, and that any future enlargement must be accompanied by a proper information campaign and the close involvement of Europe's citizens.

See summary of our activities.