Europe Day and Romania’s State Independence Day

In 1985, the leaders of the European Community, meeting at the summit in Milan, decided that on May 9, Europe Day should be celebrated.

The date marks the historic day on which the Schuman Declaration was delivered.

In a speech delivered in Paris in 1950, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Schuman, proposed the establishment of a new form of political cooperation in Europe, which would remove forever the possibility of a new war breaking out between the nations of Europe, writes europa.eu .

On May 9, 1950, the first step towards the creation of today’s European Union was taken.

Schuman read in front of the international press a statement calling on France, Germany and four other European states to pool their coal and steel production, thus laying the foundation stone of a European federation.

The French minister then proposed the creation of a supranational European institution, in charge of managing the coal and steel industry, a sector that constituted, at the time, the basis of the entire military power. The countries to which the appeal was issued had nearly destroyed each other in a conflict that left behind immense material damage and a sense of desolation.

“World peace cannot be ensured without making creative efforts proportionate to the dangers that threaten it. The contribution that an organized and active Europe can make to civilization is indispensable for maintaining peaceful relations”.

This is how one of the most important statements of the last century begins. Schuman would present Jean Monnet’s idea of ​​making war impossible.

“The French government proposes that Franco-German coal and steel production be placed under a common High Authority, within an organization open to other European states. The joint production of coal and steel will immediately ensure the establishment of common bases of economic development, a first step towards the realization of a European federation and will change the destinies of those regions which in the past devoted themselves to the manufacture of munitions of war, but which were , at the same time, the most constant victims of conflicts”.

It was the first time something like this had happened. Jean Monnet, the author of the European Union plan, thought in such a way as to make war impossible from a material point of view, putting the coal and steel production of Europe under the authority of a supranational.

“The solidarity of production thus established will prove that any war between France and Germany becomes not only unimaginable, but also impossible from a material point of view.”

Basically, Schuman was inviting Germany and other European states to join a new continental order. After his statement, Konrad Adenauer, the chancellor of West Germany, announced that he agreed with Schuman’s proposal. Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands joined.

It was going to happen. Europe was finally uniting.

The representatives of all the states meet and decide that on April 18, 1951, they will sign the Treaty of Paris, which leads to the emergence of the European Coal and Steel Community, a kind of grandmother of today’s European Union. The United States of America strongly supports the European project. The Marshall Plan and NATO are just two of the vital aids that the American people have offered to the European people.

Romania, independent state since 1877

The first significance of May 9 for Romania is linked to the year 1877, being the day when Mihail Kogălniceanu delivered, in the plenary session of the Assembly of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania, an act that confirmed the definitive registration of the country on the map of Europe.

At that time, Mihail Kogălniceanu announced: “We are independent, we are an independent nation… We are untied from our ties with the High Gate… The government will do everything in its power that our status as an independent state and independently to be recognized in Europe”.

The affirmation of Romania’s non-independence would be fulfilled, in the following months, by the Army, on the battlefields of Plevna, Rahova, Griviţa, Smârdan and other redoubts conquered with blood and sacrifices. This day was proclaimed the State Independence Day of Romania.