A celebration for all EU citizens: Europe Day
Last Sunday, as on every 9 May, the member states of the European Union (EU) marked the now traditional Europe Day, which celebrates peace and unity on the European continent.
Why is this festival celebrated on 9 May?
9 May is an important date for Europe as it is the birthday of the Schuman Declaration, a statement issued by the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman in 1950 – five years after the end of the Second World War. It was at this event that the idea of «a new form of political cooperation in Europe that would make a new war between European nations unthinkable» was first mooted.
Furthermore, Schuman proposed the creation of a European institution to pool and manage coal and steel production. Barely a year later, in April 1951, the Treaty in Paris (formally Treaty Treaty establishing the European Community of Coal and Steel) between the Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. And this organisation is regarded by its member countries as the precursor to the European Union.
