[4] The blazon given by the EU in 1996 describe the design as: "On an azure field a circle of twelve golden mullets, their points not touching.

The Council of Europe gave the flag a symbolic description in the following terms,[6] though the official symbolic description adopted by the EU omits the reference to the "Western world":[7][8]Against the blue sky of the Western world, the stars symbolise the peoples of Europe in a form of a circle, a sign of union.

[10][13] Heitz also made a connection to the date of the flag's adoption, 8 December 1955, coinciding with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Paul M. G. Lévy, then Director of Information at the Council of Europe responsible for designing the flag, in a 1989 statement maintained that he had not been aware of any religious connotations.

An article published in Die Welt in August 1998 alleged that it was Lévy himself who was inspired to introduce a Marian element as he walked past a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[15] An article posted in La Raison in February 2000 further connected the donation of a stained glass window for Strasbourg Cathedral by the Council of Europe on 21 October 1956.

This window, a work by Parisian master Max Ingrand, shows a blessing Madonna underneath a circle of 12 stars on dark blue ground.

[18] According to graphical specifications published online by the Council of Europe in 2004, the flag is rectangular with 2:3 proportions: its fly (width) is one and a half times the length of its hoist (height).

[32] The second was a variant by Arsène Heitz, who worked for the council's postal service and had submitted dozens of designs,[33] one of which was accepted by the Assembly.

In 1987, Heitz would claim that his inspiration had been the crown of twelve stars of the Woman of the Apocalypse, often found in Marian iconography (see below).

[37] West Germany objected to the fifteen-star design, as one of the members was Saar Protectorate, and to have its own star would imply sovereignty for the region.

[39] Shortly after this design considerations by Paul Levy, on 27 July 1950, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, president of the Pan-European movement wrote a memorandum which contained some rules that a flag for such union should follow.

The council put forward this proposal, which had a green flag with a white and red Star of Liberation, and the Strasbourg coat of arms on the upper left-hand corner.

This committee submitted a substantial report, including wide-ranging suggestions, from organising a "European lottery" to campaigning for the introduction of local voting rights for foreign nationals throughout Europe.

[80] The Communities began to use the "emblem" as its de facto flag from 1986, raising it outside the Berlaymont building (the seat of the European Commission) for the first time on 29 May 1986.

[83] In 2002, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas designed a symbol, dubbed the "barcode", which displayed the colours of the national flags of the EU member states in vertical stripes.

[84][85][86] The official status of the emblem as the flag of the European Union was to be formalised as part of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

[88][clarification needed] In September 2008, the Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs proposed a formal change in the institution's rules of procedure to make "better use of the symbols".

[102] It was flown during the 2013 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine,[103][104][105] and in 2016 by the pro-EU faction in the EU membership referendum campaigns in the United Kingdom.

[109] By the 2010s, the association of the emblem with the EU had become so strong that the Council of Europe saw it necessary to design a new logo, to "avoid confusion", officially adopted in 2013.

[115] Other emblems make reference to the European flag, such as the EU organic food label that uses the twelve stars but reorders them into the shape of a leaf on a green background.

The original logo of the European Broadcasting Union used the twelve stars on a blue background adding ray beams to connect the countries.

[120] Sixteen out of twenty-seven member states in 2007 signed the declaration recognising "the flag with a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background" as representing "the sense of community of the people in the European Union and their allegiance to it.

"[121] In 2017, president of France Emmanuel Macron signed a declaration endorsing the 2007 statement,[122] so that, as of 2018, 17 out of 27 member states have recognised the emblem as a flag representing "allegiance to the EU": Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

In most member states, use of the EU flag is only de facto and not regulated by legislation, and as such subject to ad hoc revision.

The flag followed the yellow and blue colour scheme however instead of twelve stars there were the letters EP and PE (initials of the European Parliament in the six community languages at the time) surrounded by a wreath.

[133] The flag of the Brussels-Capital Region (introduced in 2016) consists of a yellow iris with a white outline upon a blue background.

[137] Several EU publications related to the CSDP generally, and its prospective development as a defence arm, have also displayed the European emblem in this manner, albeit as a graphical design element rather than an official symbol.

[138] Irrespective of the statements by Paul M. G. Levy and the recent reconstruction by Susan Hood, crediting Arsène Heitz with the original design still seems to me the soundest option.

Caillon tells of having met the former Council of Europe employee by chance in August 1987 at Lisieux in front of the Carmelite monastery.