Germany (then West Germany) was one of the six founding members of the EEC in 1957. Which of the following countries was NOT among those six founders?

The correct answer is Spain, which was not among the six founding members of the European Economic Community in 1957. The genuine 'Inner Six' who signed the Treaty of Rome and founded the EEC were West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and Spain joined the European Communities only in 1986, together with Portugal, following a long accession process after the country transitioned from the Franco dictatorship to a democratic government in the years after 1975. This nearly three-decade gap between the 1957 founding and Spain's 1986 accession is the key fact this question tests, since candidates often conflate Spain's later prominence as a major Eurozone economy with founding-member status, which it never held. France is incorrect as an answer here because France genuinely was one of the six founders, having signed the Treaty of Rome alongside the other original members and playing a central role in shaping the early Community's agricultural and trade policies. Italy is incorrect because Italy was likewise one of the original six signatories of the Treaty of Rome, contributing to the founding of both the earlier Coal and Steel Community in 1951 and the EEC in 1957. Belgium is incorrect because Belgium was also among the original six founders and, notably, is separately significant as home to the future headquarters of key EU institutions in Brussels, a detail sometimes tested in related questions about EU organisational geography. A common exam confusion is assuming that Spain and Portugal, as major western European economies today, must always have been part of every stage of European integration, when in reality their accession in 1986 came as part of the Community's southern enlargement, well after the founding six had already built the core institutions.