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The Council of Europe has celebrated its founding on
5 May 1949 as "Europe Day" since 1964.
What is now the
European Union adopted
9 May as "Europe Day" at the
Milan summit in 1985, to celebrate that
Robert Schuman presented his proposal on the creation of an organised Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations, on
9 May 1950. This proposal, known as the
Schuman Declaration, is considered by many to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
9 May is now the more commonly observed date, though some Europeans still prefer
5 May, since the Council of Europe was designed to defend
human rights, parliamentary
democracy and the
rule of law, while the Schuman speech was simply proposing a sharing of
French and
German coal and
steel. Incidentally,
May 9 is also celebrated in many former
Soviet Union countries as
Victory Day, the end of
World War II. This is celebrated on
May 8 in most Western European countries, but is celebrated on
May 5 in Denmark and the Netherlands.
