Fifty Years On

Fifty years since the Treaty of Rome, eh? Did anyone really notice? Did you have a street party or a fireworks display round your way? Well, fully seven ninths of the countries celebrating this anniversary (or not) did not sign the original Treaty of Rome, and several of them did not exist as independent states in 1957.

If there is an anniversary worth revisiting, it is that of Euratom, which was seen as far more important at the time, in the context of the Cold War and the aftermath of Suez. Then as now, we need nuclear power to protect us from the Russians (who could turn off our gas supply any time they liked) and from dependence on Arab oil.

Every Western European country needs civil nuclear energy, and by all means let there be as much co-operation as necessary to that end, co-operation among sovereign states whose sovereignty is safeguarded precisely by that energy.