EuroBillTracker

Hello!

I have noticed that the european flag is always beside the national flag for the press point of France, Italy...

It's also always beside the national flag on official buildings in France, Italy... (Nicola - Pinguino has showed me that in Venice).

Is it the same in your country?
What do you think about it?

Here, in Montreal, there are often the Canadian flag + the flag of Quebec. Sometimes one flag only. The people of Quebec are very proud of the Quebec flag.

I have a european flag that I will put at my balcony for the summer.

Olivier

Olivier wrote:It's also always beside the national flag on official buildings in France, Italy... (Nicola - Pinguino has showed me that in Venice).

It's actually an Italian law, which states that outside every official building there should be the Italian and European flags (mandatory) and the local flag (optional); here in Veneto you often find the flag on the ancient Republic of Venice (which is now the flag of the region).

Outside my BNP branch we set up a French flag, we don't put the EU flag up.

eurobillsandcoins wrote:Outside my BNP branch we set up a French flag, we don't put the EU flag up.

Why not?

Olivier wrote:Hello!

I have noticed that the european flag is always beside the national flag for the press point of France, Italy...

It's also always beside the national flag on official buildings in France, Italy... (Nicola - Pinguino has showed me that in Venice).

Is it the same in your country?
What do you think about it?

Here, in Montreal, there are often the Canadian flag + the flag of Quebec. Sometimes one flag only. The people of Quebec are very proud of the Quebec flag.

I have a european flag that I will put at my balcony for the summer.

Olivier

In Belgium we have the national flag, the EU flag, the regional flag, the provincial flag and the flag of the community in front of the community houses. At other official buildings it's only the national, regional and European flag.

In Finland the flag of EU is almost never used. It's used only in EU's own offices. That's because (and a reason why) Finnish people don't really like EU that much. Because they're afraid of anything big. Everyone just chants "we're too small to have power in EU". Forgetting that .nl, .be, .se and many others are about as small as us and have very well enough power.

Dakkus wrote:In Finland the flag of EU is almost never used. It's used only in EU's own offices. That's because (and a reason why) Finnish people don't really like EU that much. Because they're afraid of anything big. Everyone just chants "we're too small to have power in EU". Forgetting that .nl, .be, .se and many others are about as small as us and have very well enough power.

I think the little states of the union can have more power than the bigger states of the union if they unite together, without trying to separate the Union ofcourse. These bigger states can't always unite themselves too. Because they haven't got much common interests. Their thaughts are more thinking in national way.

querty wrote:

Dakkus wrote:In Finland the flag of EU is almost never used. It's used only in EU's own offices. That's because (and a reason why) Finnish people don't really like EU that much. Because they're afraid of anything big. Everyone just chants "we're too small to have power in EU". Forgetting that .nl, .be, .se and many others are about as small as us and have very well enough power.

I think the little states of the union can have more power than the bigger states of the union if they unite together, without trying to separate the Union ofcourse. These bigger states can't always unite themselves too. Because they haven't got much common interests. Their thaughts are more thinking in national way. :(

The problem is, no one here in Finland knows that Belgium has less people than UK :D
If I tell them that Belgium has some 10 million people, they think i'm lying or something. If they believe me, they no more hate EU.
So, if we want to promote EU in Finland, we need to inform Finns of the smallest EU countries :))

How much people do they think then? Brussels the capital of Europe has about 1000 000 inhabitants. Do they know that? And that is not the community Brussels but also the communities around Brussels. Brussels city has about 150 000 inhabitants. The small countries are in the majority and there are more small countries coming on the first of may 2004.

Anonymous wrote:How much people do they think then? Brussels the capital of Europe has about 1000 000 inhabitants. Do they know that? And that is not the community Brussels but also the communities around Brussels. Brussels city has about 150 000 inhabitants. The small countries are in the majority and there are more small countries coming on the first of may 2004.

That was mine. I saw that I wasn't logged in.

Anonymous wrote:How much people do they think then? Brussels the capital of Europe has about 1000 000 inhabitants. Do they know that? And that is not the community Brussels but also the communities around Brussels. Brussels city has about 150 000 inhabitants. The small countries are in the majority and there are more small countries coming on the first of may 2004.

Well.. They just either forget the existence of those countries or think they're so densely populated that they have tens of millions of people. Finland is always advertised as a nice country because of our unique culture and because the country's all empty. Oh well. It is, but not that much emptier as some other countries.
I just hate the way many Finns have now learned that they're the cneter of the world. First everyone felt like Finland was nothing. Then came Nokia and now Finns are having a counterreaction of some kind. And think they own the planet. I hated it when I saw an full front page advertisement in our main news paper. It practically said "Finland is better than the other countries because of: <list of stuff here>". That was of course a day of Finnish work or something like that (but not the independence day). And I hate I hate I hated it.
Of course this is understandable, when the media just says "no one cares about us" ten times a day. Then people feel like they need to boost their ego and do childish things.
Well.. Of course I might be kind of "exaggerating" this, because I've haten everything nationalistic since we studied WWII's history in school and I understood what a terrible mess nationalism caused in the first half of the last century. It turns people into Americans. And that's pretty sad, right?

I think most of the Finnish users here are young ones. And if they are keen on the Euro they are also keen on the Union. So maybe in the future the opinion of the Finnish people against Europe will change in a positive way. Maybe you have to tell them about Europe and America. How stronger Europe is going to be how much better for the world. America wants to control the world and that's no good. Europe can play a good role in that part of the world's problems. I can understand America they want to protect themselves against terrorism but sometimes they go to far and than there has to be something like a unite Europe to stop them.

Dakkus wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much people do they think then? Brussels the capital of Europe has about 1000 000 inhabitants. Do they know that? And that is not the community Brussels but also the communities around Brussels. Brussels city has about 150 000 inhabitants. The small countries are in the majority and there are more small countries coming on the first of may 2004.

Well.. They just either forget the existence of those countries or think they're so densely populated that they have tens of millions of people. Finland is always advertised as a nice country because of our unique culture and because the country's all empty. Oh well. It is, but not that much emptier as some other countries.
I just hate the way many Finns have now learned that they're the cneter of the world. First everyone felt like Finland was nothing. Then came Nokia and now Finns are having a counterreaction of some kind. And think they own the planet. I hated it when I saw an full front page advertisement in our main news paper. It practically said "Finland is better than the other countries because of: <list of stuff here>". That was of course a day of Finnish work or something like that (but not the independence day). And I hate I hate I hated it.
Of course this is understandable, when the media just says "no one cares about us" ten times a day. Then people feel like they need to boost their ego and do childish things.
Well.. Of course I might be kind of "exaggerating" this, because I've haten everything nationalistic since we studied WWII's history in school and I understood what a terrible mess nationalism caused in the first half of the last century. It turns people into Americans. And that's pretty sad, right?

Ofcourse nationalism is big destroyer of world peace. Sometimes I dream of one world one country. But I think that's a little bit utopia. We saw what nationalism brought to us during the second world war as you mentioned. I am more keen on doing things together with more and more people. That's why I'm also no Flemish nationalist. I find nationalism very egocentric if you understand what I mean. Nationalism is something which can close people out. That's why I am also a little bit against the society nowadays. People are more and more thinking on their own and not at another one.

Yes, Finns are very nationalistic. Mostly it's just fine to me, but just like Dakkus, I hate that Nokia - Häkkinen - sauna - world's biggest cruise ships bull**it very much. Finns are very proud of the WWII things (although Finland lost, much worse could have happened). Sometimes I just feel it's mentioned too much and the whole Finnish identity lies on that that our grandfathers kicked on the butt of Russians. Too much is too much.

On the other hand, Hungarians use the colours of their national flad everywhere! Also salamis are wrapped with red - white - green tapes.

In Switzerland there are lots of people who have a national flag hanging next to their house. When I was on a trip to Tunisia, the president hang everywhere, not only in government buildings but also in the houses of the people and everyone had also a national flag hanging besides their house.