Where the Cracks in Europe's Foundations Began

The European experiment that brought a war-weary Continent together was set in motion 60 years ago in Rome. On March 25, 1957, France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Rome to form the European Economic Community, the center around which the European Union eventually coalesced. In the decades that followed, the six-nation club in Western Europe evolved into a continentwide organization that affects the lives of more than 500 million people and encompasses 28 (soon to be 27) countries. While the Treaty of Rome led to the creation of the largest trade bloc in the world, it also established an institutional model that is showing clear signs of fatigue....