The '''Flag of the European unionEurope''', or '''EUEuropean Flag''' is the flag of the [[EUEurope]]. It consists of a [[Circle of stars|circle of]] 12 golden (yellow) stars on an [[azure (heraldry)|azure]] background. It is an official symbol of two separate organizations — the [[Council of Europe]] (CoE) and the [[European Union]] (EU) — both of which term it the "Flag of Europe" or the "European Flag". It was first adopted in 1955 by the Council of Europe to represent the European continent as a whole. Due to the subsequent emergence of the EU, the flag is sometimes colloquially known as the "flag of the European Union", but this term is not official.<ref>European Union, [http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/symbols/flag/index_en.htm The European flag], Retrieved: 25 May 2016</ref>
The flag was designed in 1955, and officially launched later that year by the [[Council of Europe]] as a symbol for the whole of Europe.<ref>[http://www.coe.int/en/web/about-us/the-european-flag The European flag], Council of Europe. Retrieved 27 October 2016.</ref> The Council of Europe urged it to be adopted by other European organisations, and in 1985 the [[European Economic Community]] (EEC) adopted it as its own flag (having had no flag of its own before) at the initiative of the [[European Parliament]].
