Meeting of Heads of State and Government of France, Germany, Spain and Italy

President's News - 2017.3.4

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This four-way summit will be held in the format of a working dinner, with an eye to the Rome Summit on 25 March, which will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome.

The meeting in Versailles provides continuity to the meeting that the Heads of State and Government of Germany, France and Italy held in Ventotene (Italy), on 22 August 2016, and the Summit of Heads of State and Government of Germany, the United States Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, held in Berlin, on 18 November 2016.

This takes place at a particularly important moment for the reflection on the future of the EU, marked by the upcoming notification of the British Government of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, due to be made before the end of March.

The summit will be held in the antechamber for the European Council on 9 and 10 March. On the second day of this European Council, a new informal meeting of the 27 has been scheduled to reflect on the future of the EU and the Declaration of Rome.

Over the last 60 years, the European Union has designed itself as an economic bloc of the first order, with almost 25% of the world's total GDP, and high levels of well-being. With 7% of the world's population, the European Union provides 50% of social spending throughout the world. Moreover, it is an open and dynamic trading block and the leading trading power in the world in terms of total imports and exports.

Europe has overcome an unprecedented crisis, but it still faces major challenges at an economic level, and must consolidate economic recovery, extend the Economic and Monetary Union and further develop the common market.

The celebrations in Rome constitute a unique opportunity to regain a perspective of success that the European integration project represents. It will also allow the reforms necessary to respond to the concerns of citizens to be debated and guarantee that the European Union and the Euro remain a source of prosperity for all Europeans.