May 09, 2007

European flag

I chose today to talk about the French flag. I should actually have written something about the European flag. Today is the "Europe Day". I realised it when I saw that the buses here in Paris were decorated with European flags today and Nathalie made a remark about it under the "Tricolur" subject.
"Europe Day" marks the anniversary of the day in 1950 when the European Union was conceived. The French Foreign Minister, Robert Schumann, gave a speach calling for the European countries to combine the coal and steel industries under a single institution. This was the beginning of the European Union.
I guess I'm not the only one who missed it. Or is there some more "noice" about it in other countries?

6 comments:

isa said...

I'm just glad the "Barcode flag" never took...

Peter said...

Nice comment!

I guess it was never really meant to be serious? The designer himself did not really believe in what he had proposed. It actually looked like a bar code, but in colours. Some 50 or 60 vertical stripes.

I understand it was agreed to keep the 15 stars (for ever), although there are now 25 members.

GMG said...

Hi Peter, thanks for your comments at Blogtrotter.
There was not much noise about Europe Day, and the flag (with twelve stars - the perfect number) was kept like that even after the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden (15), as well as after the accession of the next ten (25) and finally Bulgaria and Romania (27)...

Peter said...

Thanks gmg. Your are right, there are 12, not 15 stars.

lyliane six said...

Pourquoi n'est tu pas allé à cette manifestation?

Är öppenheten större i Sverige än i EU – eller är det tvärtom? På vilket sätt har EU påverkat den svenska öppenheten och hur har Sverige påverkat öppenheten inom EU? Har EU-medlemskapet gett Sverige nya möjligheter att driva öppenhets- och pressfrihetsfrågor utanför EU?

Den åttonde av totalt nio lunchdiskussioner som Europaparlamentets informationskontor i Sverige anordnar tillsammans med Sveriges riksdag om vardagsnära EU-frågor under temat "50 år av europeiskt samarbete".

Lunchdiskussionerna äger rum i Demokrativerkstaden på Västerlånggatan 1 i Stockholm, kl. 11.30-13.00. Anmälan görs på e-post till EU50@riksdagen.se. Anmälan till diskussionen den 3 maj måste göras senast den 2 maj. Lunchsmörgås serveras till alla som anmält sitt deltagande dagen innan.

Peter said...

lyliane, do you want me to answer in Swedish?