The European Economic Community

The creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a critical first step along the path to European integration, but its possibilities were always bound to be limited. So, after failing with ambitious attempts to launch defence and political communities, the six ECSC members switched their focus to the building of a single market. The 1957 Treaty of Rome created the European Economic Community (EEC) with the goal of creating a western European market within which there would be free movement of people, money, goods and services. But the EEC would see only mixed progress during the 1960s as its member states failed to exploit its possibilities.