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Spain in the European Union / NATO (Spain)

Status of European Union Flag in Spain
Spanish European Presidency Flag (?) With "ẽ" Character, 1995
Coast Guard Unofficial European Ensign?
Unidentified Spanish NATO flag

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Status of European Union Flag in Spain

The Commission for the Public Administration of the Senate unanimuously approved a motion presented by Entesa Catalana de Progrés (ECP) asking the Government to legally prescribe the hoisting of the European Union flag on official public buildings.

The motion was later amended by other political groups. It shall ensure the hoisting of the European Union flag "on the buildings and establishments of the General Administration of the State, the autonomous communities and local entities", through its incorporation to law 39/81 of 28 October regulating the use of the flag of Spain and of the other flags.

Source: La Razón, 20 April 2005

Ivan Sache, 20 Apr 2005

Spanish European Presidency Flag With "ẽ" Character, 1995 (?)

Possible Spanish EU 1995 Presidency flag?	Possible Spanish EU 1995 Presidency flag?

images by António Martins, 06 Oct 2004 and 18 Feb 2000

During the Sant Jordi 1999 celebrations, I saw a Spanish nationalist flag: white flag with letter "Ñ" in center. I believe the letter is red-yellow-red or only red.

Jaume Ollé, 25 April 1999

I think that was simply the emblem of the Spanish Presidency to the European Union (c.1996) on a bedsheet. The President of the European Union is chosen on a biannual rotatory basis among the prime ministers of the member states. When this happens, the country in question uses a certain logo to denote "it is their turn". In the case of Spain, the letter "ñ" was chosen as something unique to Spanish.

Santiago Dotor, 03 May 1999

The symbol used by Spain when it was our turn in the Presidency of the European Comunity was an "e" with the "~" (the symbol on the "ñ") over it. The background was blue, and the "e" was surrounded by 12 stars (like the European Union flag).

Gonzalo O'Kelly, 16 February 2000

Here is a phonecard with the "e~" logo on it, on a white background (that of the phonecard, by the way). The caption at the right reads Presidencia Española del Consejo de la Unión Europea i.e. Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Antonio Gutiérrez, 18 February 2000

The presidency of the European Union is taken by the Head of State (usually the Prime Minister) of each Member State for six months on a rotating basis. I still think that we are not talking about the same flag Jaume Ollé reported. The Spanish European Union presidency flag was blue (with yellow stars), this UFE is white; the Spanish European Union presidency flag had an "ẽ," this UFE has a "ñ." They are two completely different flags – no way Jaume Ollé could have confused these two. Please note this letter, an "e" with a tilde, is no Spanish letter but rather the country's initial (España) with a tilde on it. Spanish tend to regard this diacritical and the letter "ñ" as a symbol of hispanity, both in land and abroad.

António Martins, 18 Feb 2000

As far as I know the Spanish European Union Presidency chose the "e~" symbol to be used in official papers but not intended as a flag though it might have been used occasionally. Its colour was dark red (note that each country has an identification colour within the European Union). The tilde was somehow big in comparison with the "e" to stress its presence and apparent contradiction. The font and colour are those shown in the telephone card, so I think the above GIF shoud be redrawn accordingly. I do not think the "ñ" flag ever existed.

I remember the design was specially made shortly after a conflict between Spain and the European Union arose when Spain tried to make it compulsory for all computers to be sold in Spain to bear the "ñ" character, something which was considered illegal by the European Union because it was an offence against the freedom of circulation of goods within the Union.

M. V. Blanes, 18 Feb 2000

This may have never been used in flag format, as neither the yellow on blue version;
the yellow on blue version was certainly not what Jaume saw (red "ñ" on white), but this (red "ẽ" on white + stars) may have been;
OTOH, what what Jaume saw (red "ñ" on white) may have been a completely different flag;
e-tilde, "ẽ" (U+1EBD), is used in Guaraní, Vietnamese and Yoruba (and perhaps in the old orthographies of some European languages, such as Portuguese), but not in current Spanish (Castillian) orthography.

António Martins, 06 Oct 2004 and 23 May 1999

Coast Guard Unofficial European Ensign?

images by Antonio Gutiérrez and Željko Heimer, 05 Apr 2009

The Spanish Civil Guard (a semimilitary police organization for rural areas, customs and other services) uses also on Coast Guard ships the European flag with the Spanish one in the canton.

Jaume Ollé, 03 Aug 1998

In the page dealing with these "European civil ensigns" there is a clear statement by Ralf Stelter explaining how unofficial these ensigns are. Armand du Payrat, editor of the French Navy's Album des Pavillons 2000 also confirmed to me this lack of status when I told him about the French "European civil ensign."

Ivan Sache, 21 Sep 2001

I believe that the quote from Jaume Ollé only states that the Coast Guard (or at least some particular vessel at a particular time) uses this flag, not necessarily as an ensign and not even necessarily as an official item.

António Martins, 26 Sep 2001

Unidentified Spanish NATO flag

Last Sunday I visited an exhibition commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Spanish Ministry of Defence – which merged the former Army, Navy and Air Ministries – at Madrid's Museo de la Ciudad. Among several regimental and other units' flags, there was one flag which particularly struck me. It appeared within an area dealing with international military cooperation and was flanked by the flags of Eurocorps and Eurofor. None of the NCOs which were present at the exhibition acting as spokes(wo)men could tell me with absolute certainty what the flag was, but they were quite sure it belonged to the Spanish headquarters at the NATO HQ.

The flag was 2:3, red with a golden border (about as wide as 1/16 of the hoist) on all four sides (plus a golden fringe). Centred on the red field and occupying almost all of it was the NATO emblem, with all four 'rays' shorter than in the NATO flag and of equal length. Behind the four-pointed star but on top of the white circle were the pillars of Hercules, basically as in the Spanish arms but with yellow/gold column shafts and with no crowns on top.

Santiago Dotor, 30 Oct 2002