The Extension of the Community Method to Create a Common European Market, and the Institutionalization of European Integration (1957-1965)
Of the two Rome Treaties the EEC was by far the most important, as it aimed to create a Common European market based on the principle of the free movement of goods, workers, and services, and the full application of competition rules.
The exception was agricultural production, which relied upon public subsidies from the EEC. This was a very important exception, as in 1957 European public aid to Agriculture represented 75 % of expenses in the EEC’s budget.[1220] The Community Method was applied to the framework of the three Communities created between 1951 and 1957, which led to the institutionalization of common institutions and procedures.18.7.1 The Court of Justice of the European Communities and the European Parliament
With the adoption of the Treaties of Rome, European integration had been “institutionalized”. The formal structure of the ECSC was modified. On March 19, 1958 the European Parliamentary Assembly was created in Strasbourg, superseding the Common Assembly of ECSC,[1221] and the Court of Justice of the European Communities was established in Luxembourg on October 7.[1222] On March 30, 1962, the European Parliamentary Assembly changed its name to the European Parliament (EP) (Evans and Silk 2008, 305).
18.7.2 The European Free Trade Association: A British “Tantrum”
The success of the Common Market incited the British, who had stayed out of the treaties, to create their own international trade association. The British government, conscious that they had relinquished European leadership (Dell 2004), reacted to the Schuman plan and the further development of the first three European communities by creating the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), a product of the Stockholm Convention of January 4, 1960. This alliance was initially composed of Austria, Denmark, Great Britain, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland. The EFTA, however, proved a failure, as most of its members, starting with the United Kingdom, dropped out of it, and joined the European Community, the EEC (Denmark, United Kingdom, and Portugal) or the EU (Austria, Finland, and Sweden).[1223]
18.7.3 The Merging of Community Executives
The creation of the EFTA did not halt the institutionalization of the European integration process. Despite British pressure, European integration of the six member states of the three communities, implemented according to the Schuman Plan, became an unstoppable movement that moved ahead through the merging of Community executives. As each of the three European communities (ECSC,
CVEE, and EAEC) had its executive power, in contrast to the Parliament and the Court, which were common, the six decided to fuse the three executive authorities into one. Thus, on April 8, 1965 the Executive Merger Treaty was signed in Brussels, entering into force on July 1, 1967 (Laursen 2012, 78).
18.8