In varietate concordia

''In varietate concordia'' ('United in diversity') is the official motto of the European Union (EU), adopted in 2000. Its translations in the other 24 official languages of the EU have equal standing. It is inspired by its Latin-language version coined by the Italian Nobel prize winner Ernesto Teodoro Moneta: ''In varietate concordia'' or ''In varietate unitas'', which is also used as a compromise. It is one of the newest symbols of the European Union, alongside the European flag and anthem but, unlike most, it is specific to the EU rather than originating from the Council of Europe.

According to the European Commission, "It signifies how Europeans have come together, in the form of the EU, to work for peace and prosperity, while at the same time being enriched by the continent's many different cultures, traditions and languages."

History

The European motto was first adopted in May 2000 as "Unity in diversity" through a non-official process since it was a contest involving 80,000 students from the 15 countries that were members of the European Union at the time (a.k.a. "EU-15"): Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden & United Kingdom.

La Prairie's project (1998–1999)

In April 1998, French newspaper ''Ouest-Frances Patrick La Prairie proposed the organisation of a European mottoes contest for the, then 15, EU members' secondary education students. This event was meant as a 50-year celebration of Founding father of the European Union Robert Schuman's famous declaration about a supranational Community which eventually led to the creation of the actual European Union.Students give a name to Europe (Les élèves donnent une devise à l'Europe)
Congrès Newropeans, 5 October 2000. Patrick La Prairie.

Back in 1998, the European Union had already a flag of Europe, and anthem of Europe and was about to launch the euro, its currency; it lacked a motto, hence, the contest proposal. Journalist La Prairie was in charge of ''Ouest-France''s Press-School mission and found two sponsors, World War II French museum Memorial de Caen and France Telecom, then a state-owned company. 40 newspaper partners were found in France as well as in the remaining countries of EU-15; with at least a newspaper per country, ''e.g.'' ''La Repubblica'' in Italy, ''Le Soir'' in Belgium,"A compromise motto for Europe"
from Le Soir (5 May 2000) archived in CVCE, accessdate:2010.01.20 ''Irish Times'' in Ireland, ''Berliner Zeitung'' in Germany and ''The Guardian'' in UK.

The project was officially launched on 31 March 1999 with the opening of th
''une devise pour l'Europe''
contest's official website managed by France Telecom. The website featured pedagogic files, created by the operation's general Office located at the Caen Memorial, and teachers oriented pitches and registration forms available in the eleven official European languages (plus Catalan). The English-language version, called "A motto for Europe", had a website. The contest's slogan was "The only prize will be to write a page of Europe's History" (''La seule récompense sera d’avoir écrit une page d’histoire de l'Europe'').

A motto for Europe (1999–2000)

In September 1999, a contest was held at the start of the 1999–2000 school year to invent a motto for the European Union. 2,575 classes were involved, with students ranging from ages ten to nineteen. The main rule was that the motto had to consist of a sentence of no more than twelve words, with an accompanying explanation of no more than 1,500 characters written in the class's local language. An English version of the explanation was also required, since the teachers used this language to communicate between themselves. National and European winners were selected the following year.

By the contest deadline, 15 January 2000, 2016 mottoes had applied. A lexical analysis of this 400,000-word ''corpus'' was done by Taylor Nelson Sofres to reveal the most popular terms used by the young Europeans, which were: "Europe", "peace", " unity", " union", "together", "future", "difference", "hope", "solidarity", " egality", "liberty", "diversity", and "respect". This study was later used by the jury during the national selection.

In February 2000, each member of EU-15's media partner managed a top 10 national mottoes selection to later submit it to a second jury in charge of the European selection. These 142 mottoes were all translated in the 11 official European languages.

On 11 and 12 April 2000, the European Media Jury based at the Memorial of Caen, chose 7 mottoes among the late February selection (one voice per country). Those were next submitted to a final European Grand Jury in Brussels.

Proclamation at the European Parliament (2000)

On 4 May 2000 almost 500 schoolchildren from fifteen classes of the EU-15 (top class of each national selection) were gathered at the European Parliament in Brussels to assist the proclamation of the motto chosen that day by the 15-member Grand Jury including former Chancellor of Austria Franz Vranitzky, former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Susanna Agnelli, former Belgian astronaut Dirk Frimout, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, Luxembourgian historian Gilbert Trausch, former German President of the Bundestag Rita Süssmuth, Irish Senator Mary Henry, former British President of the European Commission Roy Jenkins, and former French President of the European Commission Jacques Delors.

The motto was displayed on a blue background located behind the 24th President of the European Parliament Nicole Fontaine. ''Unité dans la diversité'', French for ''Unity in diversity'' was translated in the eleven official languages of the EU plus Latin, ''In varietate concordia'', as read out by Fontaine. The motto had been devised by Luxembourgian youngsters and prefaced by chairman Delors who added "Europe:" to it. Probably by coincidence, the same motto had been used in the title of a Workshop held in the European Centre for Modern Languages (Graz) on 23–25 April 1998
"East meets West: Unity in Diversity".
The title was chosen by Dónall Ó Riagáin, on behalf of the organizers, the European Bureau for Lesser-Used languages (EBLUL). He attributes the expression to John Hume, the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland when he first used it, in about 1983, perhaps basing it on the text "E pluribus unum"’ on the Seal of the USA.

Since it had to be submitted for official approval by the fifteen Chiefs of State of the European Council at Santa Maria da Feira

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