Flag of the European Union
What the flag looks like
A blue field with a circle of twelve gold five-pointed stars in the center.
What it means
The circle stands for unity, solidarity and harmony among the peoples of Europe; twelve is a symbol of completeness, not a count of members.
How to remember it
Twelve gold stars in a ring on blue, and always twelve however many countries join; Cape Verde's
ring has ten stars and sits on stripes.
Fun facts
- The Council of Europe adopted the flag in 1955, three decades before the European Communities took it up in 1985.
- The number of stars has never followed the number of members: there were twelve when the EU had twelve members and there are still twelve with 27.
European Union at a glance
- Founded
- 1993
- Members
- 27 states
- Headquarters
- Brussels
- Headquarters
- Brussels
- Region
- Founded 1993
- Languages
- Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish
- Currency
- Euro (€)
- Flag adopted
- 1985
Flags often confused with the European Union
- Cape Verde: The European Union and Cape Verde both have a ring of gold stars on blue. The EU has twelve stars on plain blue in the center; Cape Verde has ten stars set towards the hoist over white and red stripes.