A celebration for all EU citizens: Europe Day
Last Saturday, as we do every 9 May, the member states of the European Union (EU) celebrated the now traditional Europe Day, which commemorates 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 meeting 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 the production of coal and steel. 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.
