ABSTRACT

Freeing up trade between partner countries brings increasing economic benefits and such results may thus fuel arguments for even closer integration. In the case of the European Union the drive to closer relations began on 1 January 1958 with the creation of a customs union between the six founder members – Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, France and West Germany – with the objective of forming a common market with overtly political as well as economic aims. The Treaty of Rome, signed on 25 March 1957, committed the participants to the ‘promotion of peace’, ‘increased prosperity’ and ‘ever closer union among the peoples of Europe’.