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It has been in wide official use by the EU since the 1990s, but it has never been given official status in any of the EU's treaties.
Its adoption as an official symbol of the EU was planned as part of the proposed European Constitution, which failed to be ratified in 2005.
Since its adoption by the European Union, it has become broadly associated with 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.
There are also a number of derivative designs used as logos or flags of other European organisations, and in the flags of the Republic of Kosovo (2008) and of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1998).
========,2,Design.
The flag is rectangular with 2:3 proportions: its fly (width) is one and a half times the length of its hoist (height).
Twelve gold (or 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 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 graphical specifications given by the EU describe the design as: "On an azure field a circle of twelve golden mullets, their points not touching."
The Council of Europe gives the flag a symbolic description in the following terms:
========,3,Colours.
The base colour of the flag is a dark blue (reflex blue, a mix of cyan and magenta), while the golden stars are portrayed in Yellow.
The colours are regulated according to the Pantone colouring system (see table for specifications).
A large number of designs were proposed for the flag before the current flag was agreed.
The rejected proposals are preserved in the Council of Europe Archives.
One of these consists of a design of white stars on a light blue field, as a gesture to the peace and internationalism of the United Nations.
An official website makes a reference to blue and gold being the original colours of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, who proposed a Pan European Union in 1923, and was an active proponent of the early Community.
========,3,Number of stars.
The number of stars on the flag is fixed at 12, and is not related to the number of member states of the EU (although the EU did have 12 member states from 1986 to 1994).
This is because it originally was the flag of the Council of Europe.
In 1953, the Council of Europe had 15 members; it was proposed that the future flag should have one star for each member, and would not change based on future members.
West Germany objected to this as one of the members was the disputed area of Saarland, and to have its own star would imply sovereignty for the region.
Twelve was eventually adopted as a number with no political connotations and as a symbol of unity.
While 12 is the correct number of stars, sometimes flags or emblems can be found that incorrectly show 15 (as of the rejected proposal) or 25 (as suggested by some after the expansion of the EU to 25 member states in 2004).
However, the flag also remains that of the Council of Europe, which now has 47 member states.
========,2,History.
========,3,Creation.
The search for a symbol began in 1950 when a committee was set up in order to look into the question of a European flag.
There were numerous proposals but a clear theme for stars and circles emerged.
Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi proposed that they adopt the flag of his International Paneuropean Union, which was a blue field, with a red cross inside an orange circle at the centre, which he had himself recently adopted for the European Parliamentary Union.
Due to the cross symbolism, this was rejected by Turkey (a member of the Council of Europe since 1949).
Kalergi then suggested adding a crescent to the cross design, to overcome the Muslim objections.
Another organisation's flag was the European Movement, which had a large green E on a white background.
A further design was one based on the Olympic rings: eight silver rings on a blue background.
It was rejected due to the rings' similarity with "dial", "chain" and "zeros".
One proposal had a large yellow star on a blue background, but it was rejected due to its similarity with the so-called Burnet flag and the flag of the Belgian Congo.
The Consultative Assembly narrowed their choice to two designs.
One was by Salvador de 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, Heitz claimed that his inspiration had been the crown of twelve stars of the Woman of the Apocalypse, often found in Marian iconography (see below).
The Consultative Assembly favoured Heitz's design.
However, the flag the Assembly chose had fifteen stars, reflecting the number of states of the Council of Europe.
The Consultative Assembly chose this flag and recommended the Council of Europe to adopt it.
The Committee of Ministers (the Council's main decision making body) agreed with the Assembly that the flag should be a circle of stars, but the number was a source of contention.
The number twelve was chosen, and Paul M. G. Lévy drew up the exact design of the new flag as it is today.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe approved it on 25 October 1955.
Adopted on 8 December 1955, the flag was unveiled at the Château de la Muette in Paris on 13 December 1955.
========,3,European Communities.
Following Expo 58 in Brussels, the flag caught on and the Council of Europe lobbied for other European organisations 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 June 1984 European Council (the Communities' leaders) summit in Fontainebleau stressed the importance of promoting a European image and identity to citizens and the world.
The following year, meeting in Milan, the 28–29 June European Council approved a proposal from the Committee on a People’s Europe (Adonnino Committee) in favour of the flag and adopted it.
Following the permission of the Council of Europe, the Communities began to use it from 1986, with it being raised outside the Berlaymont building (the seat of the European Commission) for the first time on 29 May 1986.
========,3,Previous flags.
Prior to development of political institutions, flags representing Europe were limited to unification movements.
The most popular were the European Movement's large green 'E' on a white background, and the "Pan European flag" (see "Creation" below).
With the development of institutions, aside from the Council of Europe, came other emblems and flags.
None were intended to represent wider Europe and have since been replaced by the current flag of Europe.
The first major organisation to adopt one was the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which merged into the European Communities.
The ECSC was created in 1952 and the flag of the ECSC was unveiled in 1958 Expo in Brussels.
The flag had two stripes, blue at the top, black at the bottom with six gold (silver after 1973) stars, three on each stripe.
Blue was for steel, black for coal and the stars were the six member-states.
The stars increased with the members until 1986 when they were fixed at twelve.
When the ECSC treaty expired in 2002, the flag was lowered outside the European Commission in Brussels and replaced with the European flag.
The European Parliament also 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 in 1983.
The flag followed the yellow and blue colour scheme however instead of twelve stars there were the letters EP and PE (initials of the European Parliament in the six community languages at the time) surrounded by a wreath.
========,3,Barcode flag.
In 2002, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his architecture firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) designed a new flag in response to Commission President Romano Prodi's request to find ways of rebranding the Union in a way that represents Europe's "diversity and unity".
The proposed new design was dubbed the "barcode", as it displays the colours of every European flag (of the then 15 members) as vertical stripes.
As well as the barcode comparison, it had been compared unfavourably to wallpaper, a TV test card, and deckchair fabric.
Unlike the current flag, it would change to reflect the member states.
It was never officially adopted by the EU or any organisation; however, it was used as the logo of the Austrian EU Presidency in 2006.
It had been updated with the colours of the 10 members who had joined since the proposal, and was designed by Koolhaas's firm.
Its described aim is "to portray Europe as the common effort of different nations, with each retaining its own unique cultural identity".
There were initially some complaints, as the stripes of the flag of Estonia were displayed incorrectly.
========,3,European Union.
The European Union, which was established by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 to replace the European Communities and encompass its functions, has retained use of the flag.
A Framework Agreement establishing the legal basis for cooperation between the European Space Agency and the European Union came into force in May 2004; already in April 2004, the European flag was flown on behalf of the European Space Agency, by astronaut André Kuipers while on board the International Space Station.
Following the 2004 Summer Olympics, President Romano Prodi pointed out that the combined medal total of the European Union was far greater than that of any other country and called for EU athletes to fly the European flag at the following games alongside their own as a sign of solidarity.
Use of the flag has also been reported as representing the European team at the Ryder Cup golf competition in the early 2000s, although most European participants preferred to use their own national flags.
The official status of the flag as a symbol of the European Union was to be formalised as part of the Constitution of the European Union.
However, as the proposed constitutio failed ratification, the mention of all state-like emblems, including the flag, were removed from the replacement Treaty of Lisbon of 2007.
Instead, a separate declaration by sixteen Member States was included in the final act of the Treaty of Lisbon stating that the flag, the anthem, the motto and the currency and Europe Day "will for them continue as symbols to express the sense of community of the people in the European Union and their allegiance to it."
In reaction to the removal of the flag from the treaty, the European Parliament, which had supported the inclusion of such symbols, backed a proposal to use these symbols "more often" on behalf of the Parliament itself; Jo Leinen, MEP for Germany, suggested that the Parliament should "take the "avant-garde"" in their use.
In September 2008, the Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs proposed a formal change in the institution's rules of procedure to make "better use of the symbols".
Specifically, the flag would be present in all meeting rooms (not just the hemicycle) and at all official events.
The proposal was passed on 8 October 2008 by 503 votes to 96 (15 abstentions).
========,3,Political usage in Eastern Europe.
The flag was used as a banner for "pro-Europeanism" outside the Union, for example in several of the "colour revolutions" during the 2000s.
In Belarus, it was used on protest marches alongside the banned former national flag and flags of opposition movements during the protests of 2004–2006.
The flag was used widely in a 2007 European March in Minsk as protesters rallied in support of democracy and accession to the EU.
In Georgia, the flag was on most government buildings since the coming to power of Mikhail Saakashvili (2007), who used it during his inauguration, stating: "[the European] flag is Georgia’s flag as well, as far as it embodies our civilisation, our culture, the essence of our history and perspective, and our vision for the future of Georgia."
It was used in 2008 by pro-western Serbian voters ahead of an election.
The flag became a symbol of European integration of Ukraine in the 2010s, particularly after Euromaidan.