Flag of Europe facts for kids
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| Name | European flag Flag of the Council of Europe Flag of the European Union Circle of stars |
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| Use |
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| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | 9 December 1955 (CoE) 29 June 1985 (EEC) |
| Design | A circle of twelve five-pointed yellow stars on a blue field. |
| Designed by | Collaborative effort involving various people, including Arsène Heitz and Paul M. G. Lévy |
The flag of Europe or European flag consists of twelve golden stars forming a circle on a blue field. It is the official flag of the European Union. It was designed and adopted in 1955 by the Council of Europe (CoE) as a symbol for the whole of Europe.
Since 1985, the flag has also been a symbol of the European Union (EU), whose 27 member states are all also CoE members, although in that year the EU had not yet assumed its present name or constitutional form (which came in steps in 1993 and 2009). Adoption by the EU, or EC as it then was, reflected long-standing CoE desire to see the flag used by other European organisations. Official EU use widened greatly in the 1990s. Nevertheless, the flag has to date received no status in any of the EU's treaties. Its adoption as an official symbol was planned as part of the 2004 Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe but this failed to be ratified. Mention of the flag was removed in 2007 from the text of the Treaty of Lisbon, which was ratified. On the other hand, 16 EU members that year, plus France in 2017, have officially affirmed (by Declaration No. 5224) their attachment to the flag as an EU symbol.
The flag is used by other European entities, such as unified golf teams under the rubric Team Europe.
Blazon
The blazon given by the EU in 1996 describe the design as: "On an azure field a circle of twelve golden mullets, their points not touching."
Symbolism
The flag used is the Flag of Europe, which consists of a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background. Originally designed in 1955 for the Council of Europe, the flag was adopted by the European Communities, the predecessors of the present European Union, in 1986. The Council of Europe gave the flag a symbolic description in the following terms, though the official symbolic description adopted by the EU omits the reference to the "Western world":
Against the blue sky of the Western world, the stars symbolise the peoples of Europe in a form of a circle, a sign of union. Their number is invariably twelve, the figure twelve being the symbol of perfection and entirety.
Other symbolic interpretations have been offered based on the account of its design by Paul M. Levy. The five-pointed star is used on many national flags and represents aspiration and education. Their golden colour is that of the sun, which is said to symbolise glory and enlightenment.
Their arrangement in a circle represents the constellation of Corona Borealis and can be seen as a crown and the stability of government. The blue background resembles the sky and symbolises truth and the intellect. It is also the colour traditionally used to represent the Virgin Mary. In many paintings of the Virgin Mary as Stella Maris she is crowned with a circle of twelve stars.
Specifications
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 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, like 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 EC, 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 golden stars are portrayed in Pantone "Yellow":
| Azure | Gold | |
|---|---|---|
| Pantone | Reflex Blue | Yellow |
| RGB | #003399 |
#FFCC00 |
| CMYK | 100.80.0.0 | 0.21.100.0 |
The 2013 logo of the Council of Europe has the colours:
| Azure | Gold | |
|---|---|---|
| Pantone | PMS 287 | PMS 116 |
| RGB | #1E448A |
#FDCB0B |
| CMYK | 100.67.0.40 | 0.20.100.0 |
Adoption and usage
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 as 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 Lisbon of 2007, although sixteen member states signed a declaration supporting the continued use of the flag. In 2007, the European Parliament officially adopted the flag for its own use.
See also
In Spanish: Bandera de Europa para niños
- Symbols of Europe#Flag
- Symbols of the European Union
- European Fisheries Control Agency#Pennant
- Flag of the Western Union
- Flag of the Western European Union
- Flag of the European Coal and Steel Community
- Flag of the Paneuropean Union (adopted 1922)
- Hertensteiner Cross of the federalist movements (used in 1946)
- Federalist flag of the European Movement (adopted 1948)
- Flag of the African Union
- Flag of the Eurasian Economic Union
