The European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) was formalized with the Euratom Treaty, signed by six countries in March 1957; this, along with the establishment of the European Economic Community, is considered a watershed event in the European integration process.
Thus far, existing studies on French diplomacy toward Euratom have not focused on the French position on the issue of bringing its overseas territories within the framework of Euratom. However, inclusion of overseas territories was a strategic matter, considering that Eurafrica was promoted by Gaston Defferre, the then Minister of Overseas France, and was later adopted by Guy Mollet, the then French Prime Minister. Euratom was conceived as a part of France's vision of Eurafrica, which aimed to struggle for ground in a bipolar world, based on Africa's abundant resources. With inputs from various archival sources, especially in France and Brussels, this article illustrates how Euratom, based on Eurafrica, evolved as well as how France took a decision between alternatives, including both civil and military programs. By doing this, the negative views of Euratom can be reconsidered.
What were the consequences of Euratom for France? Militarily, Euratom was “ambiguous” because it neither assured exclusively peaceful use of atomic energy nor served any unique military purpose. Considering the pronuclear French stand, it is deducible that France was never keen on Euratom.
However, from a strategic viewpoint, Euratom was important to France with regard to the overseas territories of Euratom's member states, and concurred well with the French response to the decolonization process. In the midst of the decolonization wave, the European integration process, relaunched after the Messina Conference in June 1955, was pursued by Defferre with the eventual goal of a Eurafrica, and aimed at a new mutually beneficial long-term relationship between the member states and their colonies. Further, when Euratom was signed, the member states' colonies were also integrated, albeit with some exceptions. This was seen as a step toward the creation of Eurafrica, which would serve as a means of response to the decolonization process. Moreover, Euratom also functioned as an insurance for the realization of Eurafrica for Mollet, as it came very close to concretizing into a Eurafrica after the Suez debacle; this was the case when the other French vision of Eurafrica, based on common market principles, was far from being realized due to member disagreements.

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