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Ukraine is not a part of the EU but is a member of the Council of Europe.
The flag is used by the Cabinet of Ukraine, Prime Minister of Ukraine, and MFA UA during official meetings.
It was flown during the 2013 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine.
========,2,Use by the European Union.
The Council of Europe, and in a web page archived in 2002 expressed its satisfaction with the "growing awareness of the European flag and emblem among European citizens", stating that with the adoption of the flag by the European Union, both "[t]he European Commission and the Council of Europe are responsible for ensuring that all uses of this symbol respect the dignity of the European flag and emblem".
According to the EU web portal, the flag should be taken to symbolise "both the European Union and, more broadly, the identity and unity of Europe".
All EU institutions, bodies and agencies have their own logo or emblem, albeit often inspired by the flag's design and colours.
As part of the EU's usage, the flag appears on the euro banknotes.
Euro coins also display the twelve stars of the flag on both the national and common sides and the flag is sometimes used as an indication of the currency or the eurozone (a collective name for those countries that use the Euro).
The flag appears also on many driver's licenses and vehicle registration plates issued in the Union.
========,3,Protocol.
It is mandatory for the flag to be used in every official speech made by the President of the European Council and it is often used at official meetings between the leaders of an EU state and a non-EU state (the national flag and European flag appearing together).
While normally the national flag takes precedence over the European flag in the national context, meetings between EU leaders sometimes differ.
For example, the Italian flag code as of 2008 expressly replaces the Italian flag with the European flag in precedence when dignitaries from other EU countries visit – for example the EU flag would be in the middle of a group of three flags rather than the Italian flag.
The flag is usually flown by the government of the country holding the rotating presidency Council of Ministers.
The design of the European flag was displayed on the Eiffel Tower in Paris to celebrate the French Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2008.
In 2009, the Czech President Václav Klaus, a eurosceptic, refused to fly the flag from his castle.
In response, Greenpeace projected an image of the flag onto the castle and attempted to fly the flag from the building themselves.
Some members also have their own rules regarding the use of the flag alongside their national flag on domestic occasions, for example the obligatory use alongside national flags outside police stations or local government buildings.
As an example according to the Italian laws it is mandatory for most public offices and buildings to hoist the European Flag alongside the Italian national Flag (Law 22/2000 and Presidential Decree 121/2000).
Outside official use, the flag may not be used for aims incompatible with European values.
In national usage, national protocol usually demands the national flag takes precedence over the European flag (which is usually displayed to the right of the national flag from the observer's perspective).
On occasions where the European flag is flown alongside all national flags (for example, at a European Council meeting), the national flags are placed in alphabetical order (according to their name in the main language of that state) with the European flag either at the head, or the far right, of the order of flags.
Extraordinary flying of the flag is common on the EU's flag day, known as Europe Day, which is celebrated annually on 9 May.
On Europe Day 2008, the flag was flown for the first time above the German Reichstag.
========,3,Military and naval use.
In addition to the flags use by the government and people, the flag is also used in EU military operations; however, it is not used as a civil ensign.
In 2003, a member of the European Parliament tabled a proposal in a temporary committee of the European Parliament that national civil ensigns be defaced with the European flag.
This proposal was rejected by Parliament in 2004, and hence the European flag is not used as a European civil ensign.
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).
========,2,Derivative designs.
The design of the European flag has been used in a variation, such as that of the Council of Europe mentioned above, and also to a greater extent such as the flag of the Western European Union (WEU; now defunct), which uses the same colours and the stars but has a number of stars based on membership and in a semicircle rather than a circle.
It is also defaced with the initials of the former Western European Union in two languages.
The flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have such a strong connection as the WEU flag, but was partly inspired by the European involvement in, and aspirations of, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It uses the same blue and yellow colours and the stars, although of a different number and colour, are a direct reference to those of the European flag.
Likewise, the Republic of Kosovo uses blue, yellow and stars in its flag, which has been mocked as "a none too subtle nod to the flag of the European Union, which is about to become Kosovo's new best friend as it takes over protector status from the United Nations".
The flag of the Brussels-Capital Region consists of a yellow iris with a white outline upon a blue background.
Its colours are based on the colours of the Flag of Europe, because Brussels is considered the unofficial capital of the EU.
The national flag of Cape Verde also shows similarity to the flag of the European Union.
The flag is made of a circular formation of ten yellow stars on a dark blue background and a band of white and red.
The stars represent the main islands of the nation (a chain of islands off the coast of West Africa).
The blue represents the ocean and the sky.
The band of white and red represents the road toward the construction of the nation, and the colours stand for peace (white) and effort (red).
The flag was adopted on 22 September 1992.
Other labels take reference to the European flag such as the EU organic food label that uses the twelve stars but reorders them into the shape of a leaf on a green background.
The original logo of the European Broadcasting Union used the twelve stars on a blue background adding ray beams to connect the countries.
========,2,Marian interpretation.
In 1987, following the adoption of the flag by the EEC, Arsène Heitz (1908–89), one of the designers who had submitted proposals for the flag's design, suggested a religious inspiration for it.
He claimed that the circle of stars was based on the iconographic tradition of showing the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Woman of the Apocalypse, wearing a "crown of twelve stars".
The French satirical magazine ' reacted to Heitz's statement with an article entitled ' ("Europe Raped by the Blessed Virgin") in the 20 December 1989 edition.
Heitz also made a connection to the date of the flag's adoption, 8 December 1955, coinciding with the Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Paul M. G. Lévy, then Director of Information at the Council of Europe responsible for designing the flag, in a 1989 statement maintained that he had not been aware of any religious connotations.
In an interview given 26 February 1998, Lévy denied not only awareness of the "Marian" connection, but also denied that the final design of a circle of twelve stars was Heitz's.
To the question "Who really designed the flag?"
Lévy replied:
Carlo Curti Gialdino (2005) has reconstructed the design process to the effect that Heitz's proposal contained varying numbers of stars, from which the version with twelve stars was chosen by the Committee of Ministers meeting at Deputy level in January 1955 as one out of two remaining candidate designs.
Lévy's 1998 interview apparently gave rise to a new variant of the "Marian" anecdote.
An article published in "" in August 1998 alleged that it was Lévy himself who was inspired to introduce a "Marian" element as he walked past a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
An article posted in ' in February 2000 further connected the donation of a stained glass window for Strasbourg Cathedral by the Council of Europe on 21 October 1956.
This window, a work by Parisian master Max Ingrand, shows a blessing Madonna underneath a circle of 12 stars on dark blue ground.
The overall design of the Madonna is inspired by the banner of the cathedral's ', and the twelve stars are found on the statue venerated by this congregation inside the cathedral (twelve is also the number of members of the congregation's council).
========,1,preface.
Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (BeAl(SiO)) colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium.
Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the Mohs scale.
Most emeralds are highly included, so their toughness (resistance to breakage) is classified as generally poor.
Emerald is a cyclosilicate.
========,2,Properties determining value.
Emeralds, like all colored gemstones, are graded using four basic parameters–the four "C"s of connoisseurship: "color", "clarity," "cut" and "carat weight".
Before the 20th century, jewelers used the term "water", as in, "a gem of the finest water", to express the combination of two qualities: color and clarity.
Normally, in the grading of colored gemstones, color is by far the most important criterion.
However, in the grading of emeralds, clarity is considered a close second.
A fine emerald must possess not only a pure verdant green hue as described below, but also a high degree of transparency to be considered a top gem.
In the 1960s, the American jewelry industry changed the definition of "emerald" to include the green vanadium-bearing beryl.
As a result, "vanadium emeralds" purchased as emeralds in the United States are not recognized as such in the UK and Europe.
In America, the distinction between traditional emeralds and the new vanadium kind is often reflected in the use of terms such as "Colombian emerald".
========,3,Color.
In gemology, color is divided into three components: "hue", "saturation", and "tone".
Emeralds occur in hues ranging from yellow-green to blue-green, with the primary hue necessarily being green.
Yellow and blue are the normal secondary hues found in emeralds.
Only gems that are medium to dark in tone are considered emeralds; light-toned gems are known instead by the species name "green beryl".
The finest emeralds are approximately 75% tone on a scale where 0% tone is colorless and 100% is opaque black.
In addition, a fine emerald will be saturated and have a hue that is bright (vivid).
Gray is the normal saturation modifier or mask found in emeralds; a grayish-green hue is a dull-green hue.
========,3,Clarity.
Emeralds tend to have numerous inclusions and surface breaking fissures.
Unlike diamonds, where the loupe standard, i.e.
10× magnification, is used to grade clarity, emeralds are graded by eye.
Thus, if an emerald has no visible inclusions to the eye (assuming normal visual acuity) it is considered flawless.
Stones that lack surface breaking fissures are extremely rare and therefore almost all emeralds are treated ("oiled", see below) to enhance the apparent clarity.
The inclusions and fissures within an emerald are sometime described as "jardin" (French for "garden"), because of their mossy appearance.
Imperfections are unique for each emerald and can be used to identify a particular stone.
Eye-clean stones of a vivid primary green hue (as described above), with no more than 15% of any secondary hue or combination (either blue or yellow) of a medium-dark tone, command the highest prices.
The relative non-uniformity motivates the cutting of emeralds in cabochon form, rather than faceted shapes.
Faceted emeralds are most commonly given an oval cut, or the signature emerald cut, a rectangular cut with facets around the top edge.
========,3,Treatments.
Most emeralds are oiled as part of the post-lapidary process, in order to fill in surface-reaching cracks so that clarity and stability are improved.
Cedar oil, having a similar refractive index, is often used in this widely adopted practice.