What started as a community of six countries with common interests, mostly in trade, has today become a union of 27 European nations with the possibility of further enlargement in the near future.
It was then 1957, just more than a decade after the end of the Second World War. The first half of the past century had been a period of strife and difficulty for Europe, having also fought the First World War between 1914 and 1918.
The agreement signed in Rome on 25 March 1957 by France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg – countries that had been at each other’s throats for centuries and who had been enemies to a very bloody extent only a few years earlier – was the first step towards the form-ation of a political and commercial union, the European Union as we know it today.
Those six countries have, over time, been joined by another 21, forming a block of 500 million people, and the numbers could keep growing if other nations like Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey are accepted as members.
Malta joined in what has been to date the biggest expansion, when together with another nine nations it became a member on 1 May 2004.
The celebrations that will be held this weekend in Berlin – Germany is currently holding the rotating EU presidency – and in most of the EU member states will mark 50 years of unprecedented stability, peace and prosperity in Europe.
They have been 50 years of growth, but of course there have been times of difficulty too. For one thing, the French and Dutch “no” to the European Constitution two years ago was a serious setback to the union’s attempts to lead to further unification and to simplifying its modus operandi.
Plans to revitalise the issue have since been unsuccessful, although German Chancellor Angela Merkel is still confident that some form of agreement can be reached. When – and if – this will happen is another matter, because efforts to put the European Constitution back on the agenda have so far been received with a lot of scepticism.
But there are other issues that the EU must tackle, and at this point in time they are probably as, if not more, important than the Constitution. For one thing, Europe must face the challenge of globalisation and the effects on world trade that are being brought about with the growth of India and China.
It must also face the problem of immigration, which is a matter of deep concern for Malta too, as more and more people from Asia and especially Africa try to find a better life on the Old Continent.
The EU must also find ways and means of sustaining the prosperity that has been achieved over the years, and must do so while enabling the newer member states to reach the same standard of living that has been reached in the older members. This is not an easy task.
EU leaders must keep in mind that job security and improving social welfare are other important challenges that need to be seen to.
The EU’s interest in other areas of the world, with particular reference to conflict prevention, peacekeeping and humanitarian aid, must also be maintained. Global warming must also be high on the EU’s agenda, and the EU must dedicate more time to the matter and implement programmes that will help reduce the phenomenon.
The European Union has every right to celebrate this weekend. Few would have imagined that the EU would have grown so – in terms of the number of countries and from the economic point of view – when the Treaty of Rome was signed 50 years ago.
But, as the streets of Berlin and elsewhere turn into festive mood, EU leaders must realise that the road ahead is bumpy.
What is important is that they face it in unity.