CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 01/2016

LE MONDE PROMOTION
Celebrating Europe Day and Europe‘s Flag
„Against the blue sky of the Western world, the stars represent the peoples
of Europe in a circle, a symbol of unity. Their number shall be invariably set
at twelve, the symbol of completeness and perfection.“
EU-flags in front of the Berlaymont-Building at rue de la Loi/Wetstraat, Brussels, the
European Commission headquarters.
You will encounter it every day and almost
everywhere: in front of public buildings, in
your passport, on Euro-notes and on the license
plate of your car. It is even hidden amongst the
emojis available on your smartphone: the European
flag. Today, the circle of twelve golden stars on dark
blue background is widely recognised as the sign of
the European Union – even beyond its own borders.
This year‘s Europe Day, the 9th of May, there is a special
occasion for celebrating: 2016 marks the 30th
anniversary of the European flag as the symbol of the
European Union.
Originally, the 12-starred flag had exclusively
been the symbol of the Council of Europe, an international
organisation of, today, 47 member states
which is promoting human rights and democracy. It
was only in 1986 when the European Community,
predecessor of the European Union, adopted the
same flag, too.
In the 1950s, the Council of
Europe was looking for a symbol
that would be representative,
unifying and recognizable in order
to spread the message of European
cooperation in a postwar
continent. French painter
Arsène Heitz, an employee of the
Council‘s postal office, submitted
numerous sketches for a flag design.
Among those submissions
one stood out: a flag with fifteen
golden stars (one for every
Council member state of the
time), arranged in a circle, on an
azure blue background. The design
was unanimously accepted.
Finally, however, it was decided
not to link the stars to the number
of member states at all but to
incorporate twelve stars instead,
the symbol of „completeness and
perfection“ in European cultural
history.
On the other hand, the European Communities
– the EU‘s predecessor – never had its generally accepted
official symbol or flag. Therefore, a big green
E on white ground was often used for that purpose. It
required an initiative from the members of the European
Parliament – the directly elected legislative
body of what is now the European Union: They wanted
to highlight the continent‘s new found cooperation
and to settle the question of the emblem once and
for all. After broad approval in the parliament as well
as after receiving permission from the Council of Europe,
the flag of the latter was adopted: on 29 May
1986, the circle of twelve golden stars on the blue
background flew outside the European Commission
building in Brussels for the first time. Today, the European
flag has become the definitive symbol for the
European Union, for Europe and for democracy. It
stands for a union of European countries working
together in cooperation, solidarity and unity, as envisioned
by Robert Schuman.
INFO
On May 9th, Europeans
commemorate the
declaration by French
foreign minister Robert
Schuman who, in 1950,
called for a common
European Coal and Steel
Community, a project that
would eventually develop
into the European Union
we know today. The
common project was
initiated in the wake of
World War II to ensure
that another war between
European nations would
be „not merely
unthinkable, but
materially impossible“.
PHOTO: © EUROPEAN UNION, 2016, ETIENNE ANSOTTE
L'AUTRICHE
DER NAME IST
PROGRAMM. IN
L’AUTRICHE DREHT SICH
ALLES UM DEN STANDORT
ÖSTERREICH, SEINE
WIRTSCHAFT UND SEINE
BEDEUTUNG AUF DEM
INTERNATIONALEN
PARKETT.
THE NAME SAYS IT ALL.
IN L’AUTRICHE THE FOCUS IS
ON AUSTRIA, ITS ECONOMY
AND ITS ROLE ON THE
INTERNATIONAL STAGE.
Vertretung der EU-Kommision in Österreich
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56 Cercle Diplomatique 1/2016