Sent: 14.09.2016 from France
Received: 03.10.2016
Travel time: 20 days
Sender: myself - I want to check if the "banana stamp" is working from France. And...yes, it is working!
The European Flag is an official symbol of two separate
organisations—the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU). It
consists of a circle of twelve five-pointed yellow (or) stars on a blue (azure)
field.
The flag was designed in 1955, and officially launched
later that year by the Council of Europe as a symbol for the whole of Europe.
The Council of Europe urged it to be adopted by other European organisations,
and in 1985 the European Communities (EC) adopted it.
The EU inherited the flag's use when it was formed in
1993, being the successor organisation to the EC. It has been in wide official
use by the EU since the 1990s, but it has never been given official status in
any of the EU's treaties. Its adoption as an official symbol of the EU was
planned as part of the proposed European Constitution, which failed to be
ratified in 2005. Alternatively, it is sometimes called the Flag of the
European Union when representing the EU.
