The Treaty of Rome, establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), was signed in 1957 by the six original members: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany, the same group that had set up the Coal and Steel Community. The aim was economic integration among the six members, including a common market and a customs union.
At that time, the Bretton Woods agreement and capital controls were still producing reasonable stability in exchange rates. However, as Bretton Woods began to unravel in the 1960s, exchange rates became more unstable, and appreciations and depreciations against the dollar led to sizable shifts in  6  See Charles P. Kindleberger (1993), A Financial History of Western Europe, 2nd ed.