9 May is a double anniversary, Romania’s Independence Day and Europe Day, two fundamental milestones for Romania, said MEP Vasile Blaga (PNL, EPP), in a message for Europe Day.
”We honour the past of our country which, on 9 May 1877, gained independence. We celebrate, also today, 9 May 1950 – the Schuman declaration which laid the foundations of the European Union,” he said.
“I would like each of us to ask ourselves a simple question: Where would we be now without integration into the European Union. What would this particularly turbulent period have looked like in Romania outside the EU? The Union’s solidarity in the face of the pandemic has proved to everyone that this project is strong, solid, and the only option for Romania’s present and future. I would like every Romanian who still has a trace of Euroscepticism to ask themselves these questions. They have only one answer – Romania is Europe – in the past, present, and future”, added the Romanian MEP.
Europe Day held on 9 May every year celebrates peace and unity in Europe. The date marks the anniversary of the historic ‘Schuman declaration‘. At a speech in Paris in 1950, Robert Schuman, the then French foreign minister, set out his idea for a new form of political cooperation in Europe, which would make war between Europe’s nations unthinkable.
His vision was to create a European institution that would pool and manage coal and steel production. A treaty creating such a body was signed just under a year later. Schuman’s proposal is considered to be the beginning of what is now the European Union.