Bild:European flag.svg

[edit] Summary

The European flag is originally the flag of the Council of Europe, which is a different international organisation covering the whole Europe with 46 member states, including Turkey, Russia, and many others. However later the European flag became the common flag of the Council of Europe and the European Community which became European Union.

The number of stars has nothing to do with the number of Member States. There are twelve stars because the number twelve is traditionally the symbol of perfection, completeness and unity. The flag therefore remains unchanged regardless of EU enlargements.

File based on the specification given at [1].

[edit] Licensing

I, the author of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law. Afrikaans | Alemannisch | Aragonés | العربية‎ | Български | Català | Česky | Cymraeg | Dansk | Deutsch | Ελληνικά | English | Español | Esperanto | Euskara | فارسی‎ | Français | Galego | 한국어 | हिन्दी | Hrvatski | Ido | Bahasa Indonesia | Íslenska | Italiano | עברית‎ | Latina | Lietuvių | Magyar | Bahasa Melayu | Nederlands | Norsk (bokmål) | Norsk (nynorsk) | 日本語 | Polski | Português | Ripoarish | Română | Русский | Shqip | Slovenčina | Slovenščina | Српски | Svenska | ไทย | Türkçe | Українська | Tiếng Việt | Walon | 简体中文 | 繁體中文 | 粵語 | +/-

The Council of Europe owns the intellectual property of the European flag.

Requests shall be addressed to the Legal Affairs Directorate of the Council of Europe: [F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex; tel. (33) 388 41 20 00; fax (33) 388 41 20 52]

The European emblem may be used only if: - there is no likelihood of the user of the emblem being confused with the European Community or the Council of Europe; - the emblem is not used in connection with objectives or activities which are incompatible with the aims and principles of the European Community or of the Council of Europe.

Permission to use the European emblem does not confer on those to whom it is granted any right of exclusive use, nor does it allow them to appropriate the emblem or any similar trademark or logo, either by registration or any other means. Each case will be examined individually to ascertain whether it satisfies the criteria set out above. This will be unlikely in a commercial context if the European emblem is used in conjunction with a company's own logo, name or trade mark.