30 Years of the European Flag

The EU flag as a symbol bringing peoples and cultures together around shared aspirations and ideals for a better future. The twelve stars take on human form, welcoming the birth of a new Europe. Along the upper right of the coin's inner ring appear the issuing country "EESTI" and the dates "1985–2015". The mint mark is positioned to the right between the flag and the dates. The designer's initials (Georgios Stamatopoulos) appear at lower right.

Fourth European Union joint issue. All 19 eurozone states issued a coin with the same design on various dates. The coins differ only in their inscriptions, which appear in the respective national language.

For Estonia, the European flag carries special significance: it stands for the journey the country has made since the end of the Soviet Union. With the restoration of independence in 1991, Estonia set about consistently anchoring its European orientation in its institutions. EU accession in 2004, followed by joining Schengen in 2007 and adopting the euro in 2011, marked this development in rapid succession. The blue banner with the twelve stars is therefore, in Estonia, not merely a symbol of a community of states but also a sign of a political course that enjoyed broad public support.

The European flag itself has a long history. Introduced by the Council of Europe as early as 1955 and adopted as an official symbol of the European Communities from 1986, it emerged at a time when Europe was conceived primarily as a response to the wars of the first half of the century. The twelve stars do not represent a specific number of members but were designed as an unchanging symbol. Even today, the flag's meaning and reach have shifted with every round of enlargement. To mark the 30th anniversary of its adoption as an EU symbol, all euro states jointly issued a commemorative coin in 2015 — to date the only Europe-wide joint issue with an identical design in every participating country.