This year’s Europe Day, the holiday of peace and unity across the EU, will be somewhat dimmed as Brussels-declared European unity is not that obvious anymore. Ideas behind the European Union were put forward in 1950 by the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman whose Declaration of May 9, proposed to pool French and German coal and steel industries together, thus leading to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the prototype of the EU. The 1985 Milan summit decided to celebrate May 9 as the EU's flag day and the European Parliament formally recognized 9 May as Europe Day in 2008. The new European dates and symbols, including the flag, were to be formalized in a new EU Constitution but not all EU countries had the same view on unity. In 2005, France and the Netherlands said no to the EU Constitution backed by a number of member-states that also doubted its necessity. Two years later, the EU adopted a kind of replacement - the Lisbon Treaty, but the EU symbols remained to be used de-facto not de-jure. Then, the Maastricht Treaty entered into force in 1993 and cemented the creation of the European Union. Back then, things seemed so romantic, promising and harmonious, says Vladimir Bruter, expert with the Institute for Humanitarian and Political Research. "It’s always nice to celebrate something when you feel like it but today Europeans don’t have that many reasons to party so Europe Day celebrations will be rather humble. If we regard European unity as an ideological and philosophical value then this day should be marked. If it is a mere formality then why celebrating? Unfortunately, I think European unity is more of a formality today." "Meanwhile, practically all EU member-states will mark the day, except for the major euro-skeptic - the UK. Festivities will be held even despite the crisis and recession, says Mikhail Nosov, Deputy Head of the Institute of European Studies RAS." Things are not that bad – at least people have a united Europe whose membership is still sought. You know, some holidays are marked with tears in ones eyes which doesn’t mean they are not holidays. However, the senior EU members are seeing growing separatism trends, especially among economically-developed national autonomies like Spain’s Catalonia, Scotland or Italy’s northern provinces. At the same time, EU freshmen keep wrangling over territories or rejecting Brussels’ economic diktat, like, for example, Hungary while the “old” EU doesn’t rush to change its patronizing attitude to newcoming members. Therefore, it’s a big question what people across the EU are celebrating on Europe Day this year. Nikita Sorokin, Source: The Voice Of Russia
