Europe Day celebrations under way across the EU

[compromise]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0509/391215-europe-day-celebrations-underway-across-the-eu/

Europe Day, an annual celebration of peace and unity in Europe, is being marked across the EU.
Also known as Schuman day, today marks the anniversary of a speech given in Paris in 1950 by French foreign minister Robert Schuman.
In it he called for the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community, which over the years developed into the European Union as we know it today.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Minister for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton will lead a "national handshake" in Croke Park as part of Ireland's EU Presidency celebrations.
They will be participating in a group handshake with a team of young GAA players from community clubs around Ireland, whose families came from other European countries to mark the day.
The handshake will be replicated in national schools around the country.
Meanwhile, a party to celebrate 40 years of Ireland's EU membership will be held at the commission's office on Dawson Street in Dublin.
Among those in attendance will be EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and Minister Creighton.
Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Not to be confused with Victory on Europe Day (May 8), which is about the end of the 2nd World War or [Council of] Europe Day (May 5), which is about celebrating European culture, this "Europe Day" is really an EU fake holiday designed to promote EU federalism. It's almost like the EU's 4th of July, except without the significance.

[Danan]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0509/391215-europe-day-celebrations-underway-across-the-eu/


Not to be confused with Victory on Europe Day (May 8), which is about the end of the 2nd World War or [Council of] Europe Day (May 5), which is about celebrating European culture, this "Europe Day" is really an EU fake holiday designed to promote EU federalism. It's almost like the EU's 4th of July, except without the significance.

Never heard of either day.

[compromise]

Never heard of either day.

VE day is more common, but maybe you don't know it because you're in Austria. It's only generally celebrated in countries that won the 2nd World War. The Europe Days are relatively obscure. The main issue with the EU's Europe Day is it has a strong political motive.

Here's a video of the EU dictators celebrating it (and the protest by UKIP, PVV and DF):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HSXlsSjcX8

[compromise]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LzhSGyuhd4
Farage last year on Europe Day

[compromise]

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2013/0509/It-s-Europe-Day-but-Europeans-don-t-seem-to-know

With the very idea of a united Europe under debate amid the economic crisis, it's hard to find people who know what 'Europe Day' is, let alone celebrate it.
Today is Europe Day. It marks a pivotal declaration by French foreign minister for foreign affairs, Robert Schuman, on May 9, 1950, that led to the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community and essentially the foundation of the European Union.

In theory, Europe Day should be comparable to Bastille Day in France or the Fourth of July in the US. Instead, it’s hard to find people who actually know what it is.

One history professor did, but this was his take: “It’s nothing.” Pieter Lagrou, a contemporary European history professor at the Free University of Brussels, says he likes to tell his students the obscurity of the holiday marks "the symbolic deficit of Europe.”

The central question of "What is Europe?" is being picked apart across and beyond the continent. In the midst of debt crisis, nations are fighting to get in, questioning getting out and even splitting in two, and bickering over banking unions and political control and sovereignty.

On the ground – the level at which citizens take time to raise a flag and celebrate, or at least ponder, their national founding – it’s also an exceedingly hard question to answer.

Dr. Lagrou used himself as an example. He’s a Dutch-speaking Belgian, living in bilingual Brussels, with a French employer. His regional government and federal government are accountable to him. But so are his EU representatives.

If he, for example, cared deeply about a jobs-creation program, would it be his federal government or the EU that he should contact, and among the latter, who holds the control among the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament?

“The political landscape is increasingly difficult,” he says.

As a journalist new to Europe, I made Brussels, the heart of the European Union, my first stop on the European circuit. Perhaps it would have been better to visit the EU capitals first and then Brussels, where it’s harder than most places to know whom you need to talk to, who holds the power, and how it all works.

I walked through the city, which is the first thing I usually do when I arrive somewhere new. I went to the European district, past the European Parliament and the Commission. I went to the daily Commission press briefing. There were only a few questions asked: about funding proposals in Spain for the unemployed, EU representation at the International Monetary Fund, and Macedonia. All answers were about the same: “We can’t speculate, we can’t answer at this point.” None of them shed any light on how the EU works.

I told many people that I couldn’t get my head around it. Without fail, they all replied, “Don’t worry, neither can most Europeans.”

They were joking to a certain extent (at least those who work for the EU). But Lagrou says there is a risk here. To many, the EU has become a giant bureaucracy “without a face or identity,” he says. In the face of crisis – as real fault lines are forming between nations, especially over austerity – many are increasingly losing faith in the project.

Each year, around Europe Day, the EU opens its doors to the public, so citizens get an inside look at the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the Commission, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, and the Office of the Ombudsman. These kinds of events, of any governmental institution, are often disregarded as hokey. But it might be as important a time as ever to sign up for the tour. I know I wish I had.

Nobody in Europe cares about the EU's dumb Europe Day.

Here's the EU's propaganda video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6C9l-hb6hys

[KingNothing]

"They will be participating in a group handshake"

LOL. Really?

[compromise]

"They will be participating in a group handshake"

LOL. Really?

These Commissars have nothing better to do.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

I watch the Russian victory day parade every may 9th. I like seeing the military hardware. I wish we had a military parade too. Kinda a military nerd.

[compromise]

John Kerry issues a statement:
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/05/209150.htm

Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
May 8, 2013

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States of America, I would like to congratulate the people of the European Union as you celebrate Europe Day this May 9.

Sixty-three years have now passed since Robert Schuman declared that a united Europe was indispensable to the maintenance of world peace. This vision—protecting the peace within Europe while promoting the values of democracy and freedom throughout the world—was recognized this past year when the Nobel Committee awarded the 2012 Peace Prize to the European Union.

The United States and the EU are bound together by common values and together provide sustained global leadership. Over the past year we have worked toward a more secure, democratic and prosperous world. We have provided humanitarian assistance to displaced Syrians, supported civil society in Egypt, and sustained a democratic opening in Burma. We will continue to be partners in the Balkans and especially commend EU leaders for their contribution to the Serbia-Kosovo agreement to normalize relations.

On this Europe Day, we look ahead to exciting new prospects for the U.S.-EU relationship, including the launch of negotiations for an ambitious new Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. This is a tremendous opportunity to deepen and broaden our strong U.S.-EU ties and add to the over 13 million American and European jobs already supported by existing trade and investment.

As you pause to mark Europe Day this May 9, know that the people of the United States stand with you as friends and partners. Together, we will continue to build a better and brighter future for both our peoples and the global community.

Kerry doesn't know what he's talking about, the EU is intrinsically anti-American...

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

Oh wow, Europe Day is May 9th? Nice way to cover up the fact the Nazis were defeated that day. Unless the people in power are embarrassed the Nazis lost. Is John Kerry a Nazi sympathizer?

[compromise]

Oh wow, Europe Day is May 9th? Nice way to cover up the fact the Nazis were defeated that day. Unless the people in power are embarrassed the Nazis lost. Is John Kerry a Nazi sympathizer?

Weren't the Nazis defeated on May 8, VE Day?

I do agree, however, this is a very shady attempt to displace that event with some useless Euro-federalist crap

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

Weren't the Nazis defeated on May 8, VE Day?

I do agree, however, this is a very shady attempt to displace that event with some useless Euro-federalist crap
May 8th here, May 9th in Europe. They live in the future :P Some countries celebrated it May 7th too I think. I don't know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Day_(9_May)

[compromise]

May 8th here, May 9th in Europe. They live in the future :P Some countries celebrated it May 7th too I think. I don't know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Day_(9_May)

That one seems to be mostly for former Soviet and Yugoslav nations. Your link says most EU countries celebrate this one on the 8th, except Britain and Ireland which as you said, celebrate it on the 7th: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_in_Europe_Day

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

That one seems to be mostly for former Soviet and Yugoslav nations. Your link says most EU countries celebrate this one on the 8th, except Britain and Ireland which as you said, celebrate it on the 7th: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_in_Europe_Day

Yes well I considered the Russian date to be the official one, since they dealt the biggest blow to the Germans and gave the final push to win the war. Our country takes too much credit. Our feat was destroying the Japanese. Remember Great Britain and France are the ones who declared war on Germany, not the other way around.