On Sunday, the French are called to the polls to elect the 81 deputies who will represent them in the European Parliament. We are not going to lie to each other, this election does not excite our compatriots, only half of those registered came to vote in 2019.
Why this disenchantment? Because the functioning of this institution is unfathomable? Because out of sight, out of mind? Because Europe is an abstract concept from its garden in Yvelines? Or because we don’t understand why there are only 12 stars on the flag supposed to represent the union of 27 states? It is to this last mystery that 20 minutes attacked himself.
The Europe of the twelve?
For our little American comrades, it is not complicated, the number of stars appearing on their flag corresponds to the number of States which make up the country, namely 50. For the European Union, this principle would have been too simple. Of course, this does not correspond to the number of member countries, since there are 27 to date.
Nor even the number of founding countries since there were 6 initially: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. It was not until 1986 and the accession of Spain that the European Union had 12 members.
Back in 1955
In any case, it doesn’t work since the European flag, with its twelve yellow stars on a blue background, was adopted in 1955 by the ancestor of the EU, the European Council, then by the European Economic Community (EEC), in 1986. Note that at this time, it fits since the EEC has twelve members and is also called “the Europe of twelve”.
But it won’t last long and the number of stars won’t change. Because the symbolism is elsewhere. The arrangement of the twelve gold stars in a circle is inspired by the Catholic religion, from a medal of the Little Sisters of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul to be precise.
The little sisters of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul
The idea is to represent “the ideals of unity, solidarity and harmony between the peoples of Europe”. As a result, the number of stars, which is invariable, “is not linked to the number of member states”, but it “symbolizes perfection and plenitude”.
And then an immutable symbol is also more economical. We’ll let you imagine the budget it would take to change all the flags and all the paperwork bearing this logo as soon as a country enters or leaves the EU.