In 2024, Ascension falls on Thursday May 9. This Ascension Thursday, which changes date every year, coincides this year with “Europe Day”. Since 1985, May 9 has also been the date chosen to pay tribute to the start of European construction, in 1950.
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Europe Day takes place on May 9 in the 27 countries of the European Union in quite diverse forms. Exhibitions, concerts and debates take place on the theme of Europe, its construction and what it has achieved over the decades. This year, in 60 European cities, emblematic monuments, such as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris or the Colosseum in Rome, will be illuminated to call on Europeans to vote in a month, in order to renew their parliament. The Union is obviously taking advantage of the event to try to revive the community project.
To no longer wage war after 1945
It was in 1985 that this “Europe Day” was put on track. The date of May 9 was chosen because it was on May 9, 1950 that Robert Schuman, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, delivered a declaration considered to be the starting point of European construction. That day, five years after the end of the Second World War which tore the continent apart, he proposed to the former enemies, France and Germany, to pool their production of coal and steel. Thus, according to him, these two countries will no longer be able to wage war against each other.
In Robert Schuman’s project, this initiative is not limited to France and Germany. He said in his statement that other European countries could join. In his mind, this will lay the foundation for their future economic unification. Things must be done step by step with concreteness.
The Europe of six, ancestor of the EU
We will therefore begin with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951, between six countries: France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg. From now on, there will no longer be customs duties on the movement of goods in the six countries in question. Then in 1957 the European Economic Community was created, which at that time was called “the Europe of 6”, ancestor of the European Union.
