News Analysis: EU Rome meeting reveals divisions over call for unity

A Rome meeting featuring the foreign ministers from the six founding member states of the European Union (EU) this week ended with a call for an "ever closer union" for the now-28-nation bloc. But experts said the gathering might have done just as much to illustrate the differences between countries.

Ministers from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands gathered in Rome 59 years after the city hosted the Treaty of Rome created the predecessor to the EU.

Now spread over a diverse area around half the size of the United States or China, with 24 official languages and a population of more than 500 million, the EU is under growing strain from nearly a decade of slow economic growth, a mounting number of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, and internal debate over the EU's core rules.

"It is clear the countries of the European Union are not as unified today as they were 10 or 20 years ago, or that these six countries where back when they signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957," Angela Del Vecchio, a European law professor at Rome's LUISS University, told Xinhua.

"When things are going fine, it is easy for countries to be united. It is much more difficult in times like these, when there are so many difficulties," said the expert.

Through the final communique the ministers agreed to touted common ground between the six nations and intentions to preserve the Schengen Agreement that allows easy travel between most EU states, it also gave evidence to their divisions.

For example, the document included language calling for member states to stay the course of unity, seen as a nod to the upcoming referendum in Britain that could see it leave the EU.

The ministers also opened the door to what is called a "two-speed" Europe -- one where countries integrate at different speeds. That is already the case when it comes to monetary union, where nine of 28 EU states, including Britain, still use their own currency rather than the euro used by the others, including the six countries represented in Rome.

Another key area of disagreement was on the area of budget flexibility, pitting austerity-minded Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, on one side and France and Italy, the second and third largest economies in the eurozone, on the other.

"This problem of whether or not countries should be allowed to more flexibility in meeting their budget obligations in terms of deficit levels has to be addressed at some point," Gianni Bonvicini, vice-president of the Institute of International Affairs think tank, said in an interview.

"There was no resolution from the Rome summit," said the expert.

According to Del Vecchio, the challenges facing the EU have it treading dangerous waters.

She said she hopes Europe's leaders will be able to look beyond the calls to "take steps back" and resurrect old divisions between members states.

"This European Union that we have constructed over the last nearly 60 years can be destroyed in a day," Del Vecchio said, adding "It's important not to forget that the only way to confront these problems Europe faces effectively is to confront them together." Endit