The 1957 Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community, a major European trading bloc.
Signed on 25 March 1957, the treaty created a common market intended to promote the free movement of goods, people, services and capital among its six founding members: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. It also established the European Atomic Energy Community through a companion treaty signed at the same ceremony.
The Treaty of Rome entered into force on 1 January 1958. Its goal was gradual economic integration rather than an immediate customs union; the EEC customs union was completed in 1968. The treaty is often confused with the 1951 Treaty of Paris, which created the European Coal and Steel Community, and with the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, which created the European Union.
The EEC later expanded and evolved into the European Community and then the European Union. The original treaty was amended several times, including by the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty.