EU leaders met with the words of Pope Francis fresh in their minds on the eve of the Rome Summit. The pontiff warned that without a new vision, the crisis-ridden bloc "risks dying." As mass migration, the eurozone debt crisis, terrorism and the rise of euroskeptic parties leave a bloc formed from the ashes of World War II searching for answers, EU leaders remain deeply divided on how to move forward.Pope Francis claimed Europeans have forgotten the "tragedy" of the divisive walls that inspired leaders decades ago to take measures of unity amid hopes for a better future. According to the pope, today politicians are guided by fear and crisis, falling prey to egotistical populism that "hems people in and prevents them from overcoming or looking beyond their own narrow visions.""Europe finds new hope when she refuses to yield to fear or close herself off in false forms of security," he said. "The political stage needs the kind of leadership that avoids appealing to emotions to gain support but instead, in a spirit of solidarity and subsidiarity, creates policies that can make the [EU] develop harmoniously as a whole."His words come at a particularly challenging time as the EU prepares to open Brexit negotiations with the U.K. after it voted to leave the bloc. Francis didn't mention Brexit.Meeting without the U.K., the other 27 EU member states endorsed a declaration of intent for the next decade on the Capitoline Hill where six founding states signed the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957.EU leaders declared their commitment to strengthening unity and solidarity on the 60th anniversary of the EU's founding on Saturday, even if that means moving "at different paces." The declaration adopted in Rome comes as the EU faces pressures from rising nationalism, the immigration crisis and the looming exit of the U.K. from the bloc.The summit was held just days before the U.K. plans to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty as auspices to leave the EU amid a wave of anti-union, anti-globalist sentiments sweeping the continent while threatening the very essence of the EU. The absence of the British prime minister just four days before she launches the two-year Brexit process and a diplomatic row over the wording of the Rome Declaration are some of the key challenges facing the EU.The new Rome Declaration signed by EU leaders with the same pen that was used six decades ago proclaims that "Europe is our common future" in a changing world. It also enshrines for the first time a so-called "multi-speed" Europe, in which some countries can push ahead on key issues while others sit out, an idea pushed by France and Germany but opposed by many eastern EU states out of fear that two different classes of EU member states would be the result, effectively leaving the legacy of "European equality" in the dust.