Number of stars
The Twelve Olympians by Monsiau (late 18th century)
The number of stars on the flag is fixed at 12, and is not related to the number of member states of the EU. This is because it originally was the flag of the Council of Europe, and does not have a relationship with the EU. In 1953, the Council of Europe had 15 members; it was proposed that the future flag should have one star for each member, and would not change based on future members. West Germany objected to this as one of the members was the disputed area of Saarland, and to have its own star would imply sovereignty for the region. Twelve was eventually adopted as a number with no political connotations and as a symbol of perfection and completeness because of the ubiquity of the number for groups in European cultures and traditions such as:
12 stars crowning the head of the Queen of Heaven in the book of Revelation, Chapter 12
12 hours on a clock
12 months in a year
12 symbols of the zodiac
12 apostles of Jesus Christ
12 sons of Jacob
12 tribes of Israel
12 Biblical minor prophets
12 ounces in a troy pound
12 semitones in an octave
12 days of Christmas
12 Caesars chronicled by Suetonius
12 Olympian gods
12 labours of Hercules
12 tables of Roman Law
12 books of Paradise Lost and the Aeneid
12 hues in the colour wheel, star or sphere (western art)
While 12 is the correct number of stars, sometimes flags or emblems can be found that incorrectly show 15 (as of the rejected proposal) or 25 (as incorrectly suggested by some after the expansion to 25 member states in 2004).[
Biblical interpretation
Among the many myths that have developed about the origins of the design of the flag is the speculation that it relates to the twelve-star halo of the Virgin Mary seen in the sacred art of the Catholic Church. The flag's designer, Arsène Heitz, has acknowledged that the Book of Revelation (which is where the twelve-star halo of the Queen of Heaven was first mentioned) helped to inspire him. Revelation 12:1 is cited to explain the symbolism: "A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (a crown of stars can be interpreted as a "Crown of Immortality"). It has been noted that the date the flag was adopted, 8 December 1955, coincided with the Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast decreed in 1854 by Pope Pius IX.
Another myth has evolved around Paul Lévy, a Belgian of Jewish descent, who vowed that if he should survive the war, he would convert to Christianity. He duly survived and became a Catholic. When the Council of Europe was established, Lévy became Chief of its Department of Culture. In 1952, when the idea of a European flag was being discussed, Lévy backed the flag of the Pan European Movement. However, the cross element in its design was rejected by Socialists and Turks as too Christian. Allegedly, Lévy one day passed a statue of the Virgin Mary with a halo of stars and was struck by the way the stars, reflecting the sun, glowed against the blue of the sky. Lévy later visited Count Benvenuti, a Venetian Christian democrat and then Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and suggested that he should propose twelve golden stars on a blue ground as motif for the flag of Europe. However, the idea for the flag's design came from Arsène Heitz, not Lévy, and Lévy has stated that he was only informed of the connection to the Book of Revelation after it was chosen. Official authorities of the European Union disregard the biblical interpretation as myth.
Despite the formal rejection of biblical references, on 21 October 1956 the Council of Europe presented the city of Strasbourg, its official seat, with a stained glass window for Strasbourg Cathedral by the Parisian master Max Ingrand. It 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 Congrégation Mariale des Hommes, 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).
Herman Van Rompuy, who is Belgian, made the following comments at an assembly of European leaders marking the 21st anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall on November 9. The text of the speech is quite an achievement — a truly extraordinary display of ingratitude, which fails even once, even in passing, to mention that it was the American nation-state that brought down the Berlin Wall, making possible the present era of peace and prosperity in Europe. For van Rompuy, there is only one cause of peace in Europe, namely, what he calls “the European idea”:
The European idea has been the most successful and most generous project in the world since 1945. It has united the whole continent and brought us peace and prosperity.
Indeed, van Rompuy says he sees the ongoing project of absorbing more and more countries into the EU as the engine that is bringing about the end of the era of “barbarism and violence” in European history. He explicitly says the EU is the “guarantee of peace” in Europe:
[The] desire [of Balkan nations] to join our club follows a time of barbarism and violence…. This should encourage us even further to welcome them. Why? Because almost all who are now part of Europe have experienced great upheavals within living memory. It is true for Germany, France and the other founders after the destruction of the Second World War. It is true for Greece, Spain and Portugal after the end of their dictatorships. It is true for the former communist countries which joined us after the Wall came down. In every enlargement, the Union has absorbed the shocks. As an anchor of stability. As a haven of prosperity and freedom. As a guarantee of peace.
This is pretty surprising. Isn’t it American power that has been the “guarantee of peace” in Europe? Isn’t it the American nation-state that liberated Europe from imperial Nazi Germany, and then from the threat of the Soviet empire? Van Rompuy doesn’t remember any of this. In fact, in his 4,700 words marking the fall of the Berlin Wall, he doesn’t find space to mention the United States once.
For him, what’s been happening in Europe has nothing to do with America. What’s happening is this: “The idea of Europe” has created a “continent of values” — European values that are themselves the sole cause of the peace and prosperity of European peoples today.
That’s pretty surprising, too. But it does open up whole new vistas of ingratitude for us to contemplate: Isn’t it basically English and Scottish ideas, developed to govern and defend the British nation-state, that are today being borrowed to build the “continent of values” that van Rompuy heads? Isn’t it “the idea of Europe” that motivated Philip II, Napoleon, Hitler? For quite a few centuries, it seems as though it’s been the British nation-state (together with its admirers in France, America, Austria) that has been teaching the world what it means for peoples to live in freedom and decency, while “the idea of Europe” has spawned a succession of tyrannies. But van Rompuy doesn’t remember any of this either. What excites him about this “continent of values” is precisely that the era of the “nation-state is over“:
[W]e speak about Europe as the continent of values…. The time of the homogenous nation-state is over. Each European country has to be open for different cultures.
The time of the nation-state may be over, but van Rompuy says we have to be on our guard, because there are still bad guys around: These are the “Euro-sceptics,” who think that dismantling the nation-states of Europe may not be the greatest idea anyone has ever had. Van Rumpoy says these Euro-sceptics are spreading illusions and lies, and that their “nationalism” threatens to plunge Europe back into war:
We have together to fight the danger of a new Euro-scepticism…. In every Member State, there are people who believe their country can survive alone in the globalised world. It is more than an illusion: it is a lie! … The biggest enemy of Europe today is fear. Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war. (“Le nationalisme, c'est la guerre” — F. Mitterrand).
Most of van Rompuy’s text is written as a message for Europeans. But he doesn't pass up the chance to send a message to nations outside the EU’s borders. Van Rompuy says that the non-European nations had better wise up too: They can no longer rely on “their military muscle” to resolve their problems, as they did in the past. Because if they do, they will find themselves “isolated”:
[P]ower and influence in the world are more and more a matter of economy, and less of weapons. Recent regional conflicts like in Iraq and Afghanistan have clearly demonstrated the limits of military intervention. Emerging powers are also learning the lesson that they cannot rely on their growing military muscle without the risk of isolating themselves.
There you have it. The New Paradigmers’ worldview in a nutshell: Military power in the service of national interests just isn’t going to do it anymore. And if you think otherwise, we’ll find ways to “isolate” you and help you come to your senses.
As I say, van Rompuy doesn’t trouble himself to mention the United States. And he doesn’t mention Israel either. But he doesn’t have to. It’s obvious where all this is headed. For van Rompuy, there’s trouble on the horizon and the threat comes from the continued existence of nation-states, which insist on using force to defend the lives and interests of their peoples. Disgust for America and downright hatred for Israel are the inevitable outcome of this line of thought, which, when one comes to think of it, is not really such a bad idea after all, what do you think?
Number of stars
