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Europe
The Council of
Europe (COE) has developed a series of European
symbols for the continent of Europe,
and
these have since been shared with the European
Union (EU). They are intended both as symbols of the
organizations
themselves, and as a focus for a form of Pan-European identity.
Flag
The flag of Europe
is twelve golden stars (pointing upwards) in a circle on a blue
background.
Although the flag is most commonly associated with the European Union,
it was
initially used by the Council of Europe in 1955, and
is considered to
represent Europe as a whole as
opposed to any
particular organization such as the EU or the COE.
The flag was
adopted in
1985 by all EU heads of State and government as the official emblem of
the
European Union and, since the beginning of 1986, it is used by all
European
institutions. The Council of Europe
— which does not have an
organic link with the European Union
— owns the intellectual property
of the European
flag.
The flag has
also given Europe its "national colors"
of blue and
yellow.
Anthem
In 1971 the
Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe
decided to propose adopting
the prelude to the Ode To Joy
from Beethoven's 9th Symphony as the
European
anthem. The Council of European Ministers officially
announced the
European Anthem on January 19th 1972 at Strasbourg:
the prelude to "The Ode to Joy", 4th movement of Ludwig van
Beethoven's 9th symphony.
The well-known
conductor Herbert von Karajan
was asked to write three
instrumental arrangements - for solo piano, for wind instruments and
for
symphony orchestra and he conducted the performance used to make the
official
recording. He wrote his decisions on the score, notably those
concerning the
tempo. Karajan decided on crotchet = 120 whereas Beethoven had written
minim =
80.
The anthem was
launched via
a major information campaign on Europe Day, 5 May
1972. In
1985, it was adopted by EU heads of State and government as the
official anthem
of the then European Community - since 1993 the European Union. It is
not
intended to replace the national anthems of the Member States but
rather to
celebrate the values they all share and their unity in diversity, it
expresses
the ideals of a united Europe:
freedom, peace,
and solidarity.
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The European anthem is
based
on the final movement
of Beethoven's
9th Symphony
composed in 1823, which
contains a modified version of the lyrics of Friedrich Schiller's
ode, An die Freude
(German for Ode To Joy)
written in 1785. This poem expresses Schiller's idealistic vision of
the human
race becoming brothers - a vision Beethoven shared. It is played on
official
occasions by both the Council of Europe and the European Union.
Due to the
large number of
languages used in the European Union, the anthem is purely instrumental
and the
German lyrics have no official status. For the German lyrics refer to
the
article about the 9th Symphony.
A suggestion for Latin
lyrics to the anthem
has been written by the Austrian composer Peter Roland, but the lyric
has not
been accorded official status, and is not used by the EU. This anthem
was also sung
by the Spanish singer Miguel Ríos,
in 1970.
Europe Day
The Council of
Europe has celebrated
its founding on 5
May
1949 as
"Europe
Day" since 1964.
What is now the European Union
adopted 9 May as
"Europe Day" at the Milan
summit in 1985, to
celebrate that Robert
Schuman presented his proposal on the creation of an
organized
Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations, on 9 May 1950.
This proposal, known
as the Schuman declaration,
is considered by many
to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
9 May is
now
the more commonly observed date, though some Europeans still prefer 5 May,
since
the Council of Europe was designed to defend human rights,
parliamentary democracy
and the rule of law,
while the Schuman speech was simply proposing a sharing of French
and German
coal and steel.
Incidentally, May
9 is also
celebrated in many former Soviet Union
countries as Victory Day,
the end of World War II.
This is celebrated on May
8 in most
Western European countries, but is celebrated on May 5 in
the Netherlands and
Denmark,
and May 7
in Norway.
Motto
An EU motto, In
varietate concordia (Latin
for united in diversity), was first established
through an unofficial process in 2000. It
was selected from entries proposed by school pupils
submitted to the website www.devise-europe.org,
and then accepted
by the President of the European Parliament,
Nicole
Fontaine. The modified version, United in diversity,
has been
written into the English-language version of the currently stalled Constitution for
Europe, and now appears
on official EU websites.
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