2023-05-10 08:58:49
May 9th marks Europe Day – the anniversary of the Schuman declaration that laid the foundations of the European Union – and also the day when the French Assemblée nationale will vote on a motion by a member of Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party to make it compulsory to fly the EU flag on city hall (town hall) buildings.
Mathieu Lefèvre, a member of Macron’s LREM party who represents Val-de-Marne on the outskirts of Paris, said the motion to formalise the flying of the EU flag is about “recalling the values to which we are attached”, in the context of Brexit and the war in Ukraine.
Don’t most mairies already fly the EU flag?
For most people the big surprise here is that is wasn’t already compulsory, since most town halls and other public buildings like préfectures and government ministries display both.
When French politicians are giving speeches, it’s also standard for them to have both the French and EU flags displayed.
The standard set-up for a speech or announcement by a French politician is to have both the French and EU flags displayed in the background, as seen in this TV broadcast by Emmanuel Macron.
Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP
So what is the rule?
The only place that the EU flag actually appears in a rule book is in the education code – stating that schools must fly both the French and EU flags.
For town halls it is voluntary and up to the locally elected officials.
Most town halls display both a French and EU flag on normal days – extra French flags are often added on certain public holidays such as May 8th (VE Day), November 11th (Armistice Day) and July 14th (France’s national holiday).
Some town halls also add extra flags to mark certain occasions – for example many town halls fly the LGBTQ rainbow flag during pride month, while some town halls are also currently flying the Ukraine flag to express support and solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
This, too, is a choice for locally elected officials.
So will the motion pass?
The idea of making the EU flag compulsory seems to have divided the French parliamentwith even some of the centrist group doubtful about the idea.
Interestingly though, not many MPs have spoken out against the idea of the EU flag itself – most complaints are simply that making it a formal rule would be an unnecessary extra piece of admin and a cost burden on small town halls that don’t currently fly the EU flag.
The biggest gripe seems to be simply that this is a waste of parliamentary time.
Elodie Jacquier-Laforge or the centrist MoDem party said that her party has a strong “attachment to Europe”. But she also questioned the usefulness of a text that “does not respond to the concerns of our compatriots”.
“Is this really the time? I think that the country is waiting for something else,” added her colleague Bruno Millienne on Radio J on Monday, citing the cost of living, health and end-of-life care as the real priorities of the French.
Antoine Léaument of the hard-left La France Insoumise said the text was an attempt by the Macron government to divert attention from the pension crisis. “As you no longer know what text to pass to turn the page, you bury us under texts without consistency and interest,” he said.
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