Energy has always been a major point of the European construction. The Paris Treaty signed in 1951, establish European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The aim was to create a common market for coal and steel among Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, in order to neutralise competition between European nations over natural resources and ensure a good energy supply within those countries.
In 1957, the Treaties of Rome were signed by the ECSC members, including the Euratom treaty, aiming to foster co-operation in the nuclear field. The European Coal and Steel Community got absorbed in this new legal institutional framework of the European Union.