EU nations sign unity pledge on 60th anniversary of bloc

ROME — With Britain poised to start divorce proceedings, the 27 remaining European Union nations put pen to paper Saturday in Rome to renew their vows for continued unity in the face of crises that are increasingly testing the bonds between members.

The EU nations marked the 60th anniversary of their founding treaty as a turning point in their history, as British Prime Minister Theresa May will officially trigger divorce proceedings from the bloc this week — a fact that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called “a tragedy.”

EU Council President Donald Tusk said that sustained unity was the only way for the EU to survive.

“Europe as a political entity will either be united, or will not be at all,” he told EU leaders at a solemn session in the same ornate hall on the ancient Capitoline Hill where the Treaty of Rome, which founded the EU, was signed March 25, 1957.

To move ahead though, the EU leaders recognized that full unity on all things will be unworkable.

“We will act together, at different paces and intensity where necessary, while moving in the same direction,” said the Rome Declaration signed by the 27 nations.

The EU has often used a multi-speed approach in the past, with only 19 nations using the euro currency and not all members participating in the Schengen borderless travel zone.

Meanwhile, thousands of Poles marched through Warsaw and other Polish cities Saturday in a show of support for the EU — and a strong expression of disapproval for the country’s nationalist, euroskeptic government.