Happy birthday, EU

The European Union has just passed its half-century mark, with the celebration a week ago of the Treaty of Rome that brought into being the original European Economic Community. Like any political enterprise, the EU has its critics. Yet James W. Skillen believes that, despite its faults and its uncertain future, the EU is a significant achievement in co-operative institution-building amongst nations: The European Union at 50.

My question is this: Shouldn't we really be celebrating 55 years, given that the European Coal and Steel Community came into being in 1952 and is generally regarded as the beginning of the larger project of European integration?

Here's more on the EU anniversary: Waleed Hafeez, EU turns 50, now godless; Patrick Buchanan, The Mid-Life Crisis of the EU; Eric Margolis, EU: Excellence and ugliness; and finally the Papal Address on 50th Anniversary of Treaty of Rome.