"the flag onto the castle and attempted to fly the flag from the building themselves. Extraordinary flying of the flag is common on Europe Day, celebrated annually on 9 May. On Europe Day 2008, the flag was flown for the first time above the German Reichstag. The flag has also been displayed in the context of EU military operations (EUFOR Althea). Sixteen out of twenty-seven member states in 2007 signed the declaration recognizing ""the flag with a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background"" as representing ""the sense of community of the people in the European Union and"
"golden stars are portrayed in Pantone ""Yellow"": The 2013 logo of the Council of Europe has the colours: The Council of Europe gave the 1955 flag a symbolic description in the following terms: The official symbolic description adopted by the EU omits the reference to the ""Western world"". The number of stars on the flag is fixed at twelve, representing ""perfection and completeness"" (in the original ). It is not related to the number of member states of the EU (although the EU happened to have 12 member states at the time of Maastricht Treaty). The flag can be also"
"Council's main decision making body) agreed with the Assembly that the flag should be a circle of stars, but opted for a fixed number of twelve stars, ""representing perfection and entirety"". The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 25 October 1955 agreed to this. Paul M. G. Lévy drew up the exact design of the new flag. Officially adopted on 8 December 1955, the flag was unveiled at the Château de la Muette in Paris on 13 December 1955. Following Expo 58 in Brussels, the flag caught on and the Council of Europe lobbied for other European organisations"
"of the Southern Cross consisting of four or five stars. The star and crescent symbol is found in flags of states succeeding the Ottoman Empire, which used flags with this symbol during 1793-1923. The twelve stars on the Flag of Europe (1955) symbolize unity. The green five-pointed star on the Esperanto flag (1890) symbolizes the five inhabited continents. The 50 stars of the US flag is the largest number on any national flag. The second-largest number of stars on a current national flag is 27, on the flag of Brazil. The current national flags featuring stars include: Not bearing heraldic"
"associated with the clock. The twelve-star ""flag of Europe"" was designed in 1950 and officially adopted by the Council of Europe in 1955. The same flag was adopted by the European Parliament in 1983. The European Council adopted it was an ""emblem"" for the European Communities in 1985. Its status in the European Communities was inherited by the European Union upon its formation in 1993. The proposal to adopt it as official flag of the European Union failed with the ratification of the European Constitution in 2005, and mention of all emblems suggesting statehood was removed from the Treaty of"
"French abbreviations for Western European Union. The flag's blue colour with yellow stars is taken from the flag of the Council of Europe and European Union, however the number of stars is ten due to the WEU membership being of that number. The flag was rarely used, with the WEU being largely dormant before it was succeeded by the European Union's (EU) military activities. It was once flown on board an operational United States Navy warship, the USS ""John Rodgers"", when it was used as the flagship of an Italian general (with a WEU crew) commanding WEU relief operations in"
"Flag of the Western European Union The flag of the Western European Union (WEU) was dark blue with a semicircle of ten yellow five pointed stars, broken at the top, with the organisation's initials in the centre. Although it is the flag of a military organisation, it has rarely been flown in military situations. The flag is dark blue with a semicircle of ten yellow five pointed stars, broken at the top, with the white letters WEU horizontally across the centre and UEO vertically across the centre sharing the letter E with the former set of initials. UEO is the"
"of Europe. The Council of Europe created, and has since 1955 used as its official symbol, the European Flag with 12 golden stars arranged in a circle on a blue background. Its musical anthem since 1972, the ""European Anthem"", is based on the ""Ode to Joy"" theme from Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth symphony. On 5 May 1964, the 15th anniversary of its founding, the Council of Europe established 5 May as Europe Day. The wide private and public use of the European Flag is encouraged to symbolise a European dimension. To avoid confusion with the European Union which subsequently adopted"
"adopted by the European Communities in 1985 (and thus inherited as the flag of the European Union upon its creation in 1993) has a circle of twelve yellow (gold) stars on a blue (azure) field. The use of ""star"" for theatrical lead performers dates to 1824, giving rise to the concept of ""stardom"" in the film industry. The Hollywood Walk of Fame, where famous entertainers are honored with pink terrazzo five-pointed stars along Hollywood Boulevard, was introduced in 1958. In association football, there is a tradition of using five-pointed stars in team badges to represent victories. The first team to"
"are centred in a circle (the radius of which is a third of the length of the hoist) upon a blue background. All the stars are upright (one point straight up), have five points and are spaced equally according to the hour positions on the face of a clock. The diameter of each star is equal to one-ninth of the height of the hoist. The colours are regulated in the 1996 guide by the EU, and equivalently in the 2004 guide by the Council of Europe. The base colour of the flag is defined as Pantone ""Reflex Blue"", while the"
"WEU upon the entry into force of the Modified Brussels Treaty. Flag of the Western European Union The flag of the Western European Union (WEU) was dark blue with a semicircle of ten yellow five pointed stars, broken at the top, with the organisation's initials in the centre. Although it is the flag of a military organisation, it has rarely been flown in military situations. The flag is dark blue with a semicircle of ten yellow five pointed stars, broken at the top, with the white letters WEU horizontally across the centre and UEO vertically across the centre sharing the"
"think-tank AMO – an independent part of OMA – suggested the development of a visual language. This idea inspired a series of drawings and drafts, including the ""Barcode"". The barcode seeks to unite the flags of the EU member countries into a single, colourful symbol. In the current European flag, there is a fixed number of stars. In the barcode however, new Member States of the EU can be added without space constraints. Originally, the barcode displayed 15 EU countries. In 2004, the symbol was adapted to include the ten new Member States. Since the time of the first drafts"
"was derived from the Flag of Europe, altered for its own usage. The Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine predates them all, but its flag also uses the colour blue and a circle of stars, though with different symbolism. Symbols of the European Union The European Union (EU) uses a number of symbols, including the European Flag, Anthem of Europe, Motto of the European Union and Europe Day. These symbols have no official status based in international treaty, but they are in ""de facto"" use by the EU institutions and are in widespread use as expressions of the political"
"a diagonally striped tricolour pattern of red to white to blue (different colours but in the same pattern as the Flag of the Republic of the Congo). In the centre there would be a blue map of Bosnia and Herzegovina outlined in yellow in the middle inside a circle of 10 five-pointed yellow stars. The flag would have been a 1:2 ratio. The second flag proposed was very similar except it had 12 five-pointed stars to represent the European Union. The Flag of Europe has the 12 five-pointed stars. The third design was a bit more different from the first"
"Heitz would claim that his inspiration had been the crown of twelve stars of the Woman of the Apocalypse, often found in Marian iconography (see below). On 25 September 1953, the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe recommended that a blue flag with fifteen gold stars be adopted as an emblem for the organisation, the number fifteen reflecting the number of states of the Council of Europe. West Germany objected to the fifteen-star design, as one of the members was Saar Protectorate, and to have its own star would imply sovereignty for the region. The Committee of Ministers (the"
"the People's Republic of China (1949), as well as on the flags of most Communist countries. In the 1930s, red luminescent Kremlin stars were installed on five towers of the Moscow Kremlin, replacing gilded eagles that had symbolized Imperial Russia. Since then, it is customary to install similarly looking red stars atop New Year trees in the Soviet Union, a tradition that continues to this day in Russia. In the Emblem of Italy, adopted in 1947, the five-pointed star represents the ""Star of Italy"". The ""Flag of Europe"", designed in 1955 on behalf of the Council of Europe (CoE) and"
"Flag of the United States The flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the American flag, is the national flag of the United States. It consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton (referred to specifically as the ""union"") bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows, where rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternate with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 states of the United States of America, and the"
"shown ""a sticker of the European flag"" and asked to identify it. Responses considered correct were: the European Union, the European Community, the Common Market, and ""Europe in general"". 52% of those interviewed gave one of the correct answers, 15% gave a wrong answer (naming another institution, such as NATO or the United Nations), and 35% could or would not identify it. In 2002, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas designed a new flag, dubbed the ""barcode"", as it displayed the colours of the national flags of the EU member states in vertical stripes. It was never officially adopted by the EU"
"Air Crew Europe Star The Air Crew Europe Star is a military campaign medal, instituted by the United Kingdom in May 1945 for award to British and Commonwealth air crews who participated in operational flights over Europe from bases in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Two clasps were instituted to be worn on the medal ribbon: Atlantic and France and Germany. On 8 July 1943, the Star (later named the Star) and the Africa Star became the first two campaign stars instituted, and by May 1945 a total of eight stars and nine clasps had been established"
"the supranational organisation, due to its high profile and heavy usage of the emblem. It has also been used by pro-EU protestors in the colour revolutions of the 2000s, e.g., in Belarus (2004) or Moldova. The graphical specifications given by the EU in 1996 describe the design as: ""On an azure field a circle of twelve golden mullets, their points not touching."" According to graphical specifications published online by the Council of Europe in 2004, the flag is rectangular with 2:3 proportions: its fly (width) is one and a half times the length of its hoist (height). Twelve yellow stars"
"Symbols of the European Union The European Union (EU) uses a number of symbols, including the European Flag, Anthem of Europe, Motto of the European Union and Europe Day. These symbols have no official status based in international treaty, but they are in ""de facto"" use by the EU institutions and are in widespread use as expressions of the political ideologies of Pan-Europeanism and European integration. Use of the European Flag in particular is widespread also among pro-EU factions outside of the European Union, especially in the ""colour revolutions"" of Eastern Europe. These symbols go back to 1985, when they"
"Union (though this of course is not intended to apply to wider Europe as the others do). There have been other pan-European organisations which have not adopted the same symbols as the Council of Europe or the European Union, or have symbols derived from these. The Flag of the European Coal and Steel Community (the first of the three European Communities) was developed around the same time as the Flag of Europe and shares the use of stars and the colour blue, but uses completely different arrangement and symbolism. The Flag of the Western European Union (the European defence organisation)"
"May 2001, which made Brussels the official capital of Europe, the then-President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt invited Koolhaas to discuss the necessities and requirements of a European capital. During these talks and as an impetus for further discussion, Koolhaas and OMA suggested the development of a visual language. This idea inspired a series of drawings and drafts, including the ""Barcode"". The Barcode unites the flags of the EU countries into a single, colorful symbol. In the current European flag, there is a fixed number of stars. In the Barcode, however, new Member"
"13 stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and became the first states in the U.S. Nicknames for the flag include the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, and the Star-Spangled Banner. The current design of the U.S. flag is its 27th; the design of the flag has been modified officially 26 times since 1777. The 48-star flag was in effect for 47 years until the 49-star version became official on July 4, 1959. The 50-star flag was ordered by the then president Eisenhower on August 21, 1959, and was adopted in July"
"usage as the flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Union Flag combined three heraldic crosses which represent the constituent countries of the United Kingdom (as constituted in 1801): The Union Flag is thought to symbolise Australia's history as six British colonies and the principles upon which the Australian Federation is based, although a more historic view sees its inclusion in the design as demonstrating loyalty to the British Empire. The Commonwealth Star, also known as the Federation Star, originally had six points, representing the six federating colonies. In 1908, a seventh point was added to symbolise"
"except where there is landmass and have a star at each end – reflecting the twelve stars on the flag of Europe. Across the map is the word EURO, and a large number 2 appears to the left hand side of the coin. The designer's initials, LL, appear next to Cyprus. Luc Luycx designed the original coin, which was much the same except the design was only of the then 15 members in their entirety and showing border and no geographic features. The map was less detailed and the lines the stars were upon cut through where there would be"
"to adopt the flag as a sign of European unity. The European Parliament took the initiative in seeking a flag to be adopted by the European Communities. Shortly after the first direct elections in 1979 a draft resolution was put forward on the issue. The resolution proposed that the Communities' flag should be that of the Council of Europe and it was adopted by the Parliament on 11 April 1983. The European Parliament used its own flag from 1973, but never formally adopted it. It fell out of use with the adoption of the twelve star flag by the Parliament"
"on the initiative of the European Parliament. As it was not adopted by any European governmental body, and with the Council and European Union's flag being more widely recognised, the European Movement's green ""E"" began to be confined to the more committed federalist supporters and organisations, such as the Union of European Federalists and the Young European Federalists (though the European Movement now uses a logo based on the twelve star flag). The flag is dominated by a green, elongated and rigid letter ""E"" upon a white background. Geometrically, the flag can be divided three ways across and five ways"
"figure of Helvetia surrounded by 22 stars, enumerating the Swiss cantons (in 1983 changed to 23 stars to reflect the creation of the canton of Jura). The green five-pointed star used as a symbol of Esperanto was first proposed in 1890. The five-pointed Red Star as a symbol of communism was adopted during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. Its origin is unknown. The red star is featured on the state emblem of the Soviet Union (1923) and North Korea (1948). Another variant is a yellow (golden) star on red background, as on the state emblem of Vietnam (1945) and"
"government under Beata Szydło removed the EU flag from government press conferences. Despite not having a civil ensign, the EU's Fishery Inspection teams display a blue and yellow pennant. The pennant is flown by inspection vessels in EU waters. The flag is triangular and quartered blue and yellow and was adopted according to ""EEC Regulation #1382/87"" on 20 May 1978. There are no other variants or alternative flags used by the EU (in contrast to countries which have presidential, naval and military variants). The design of the European flag has been used in a variation, such as that of the"
"and red represents the road toward the construction of the nation, and the colours stand for peace (white) and effort (red). The yellow colour, circular formation of the stars, and dark blue field show similarity to the flag of Europe (which has 12 stars instead of 10, and was originally designed for the Council of Europe, but is also used by the European Union). The stripes are in 6:1:1:1:3 ratio, and the circle of stars is centred along the fly. The Constitution of the Republic does not specify what the official proportions for the height and the width of the"
"Madariaga, the founder of the College of Europe, who suggested a constellation of stars on a blue background (positioned according to capital cities, with a large star for Strasbourg, the seat of the Council). He had circulated his flag round many European capitals and the concept had found favour. The second was a variant by Arsène Heitz, who worked for the Council's postal service and had submitted dozens of designs; the design of his that was accepted by the Assembly was similar to Salvador de Madariaga's, but rather than a constellation, the stars were arranged in a circle. In 1987,"
"European Union flag should be flown on the immediate left of the national flag, or as seen by an observer, on the immediate right of the national flag. Where, however, an odd number of flags are displayed from staffs grouped so that there is one staff in the centre and higher than the others, the national flag should be displayed from the staff so placed. Where one of these flags is that of the European Union, the European Union flag should be flown from the first flagstaff on the right, or as seen by an observer, on the first flagstaff"