The European Union today celebrates Europe Day or Schuman Day, named after one of the European Community`s founding fathers, Robert Schuman.

The delegation of the European Commission to Malta said that on May 9, 1950, against the background of decades of conflict, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman read the declaration that proved to be the first step towards the present European Union:

"World peace cannot be safeguarded without creative efforts equal to the dangers which exist to world peace. By the pooling together of basic production processes and the setting up of a new High Authority whose decisions will link France, Germany and the other countries, which will accede, this proposal will bring to pass the first concrete steps of a federation which is indispensable to the preservation of peace".

The declaration proposed an unprecedented sharing of sovereignty in the crucial sectors of coal and steel.

The delegation said that while this may seem strangely insignificant today, in a world driven by high technology, at that time the coal and steel industry was the basis of all military power.

The countries which Robert Schuman called upon had almost destroyed each other in a conflict that had left behind a sense of material and moral desolation.

"Every country which democratically chooses to accede to the European Union endorses its fundamental values of peace and solidarity. These values find expression through economic and social development embracing environmental and regional dimensions, which are the guarantees of a decent standard of living for all citizens," the delegation said.

"The integration of Europe will not come about in one day or even in a few decades. The project, which was launched after the Second World War, is still very new and continues to adapt to new realities and challenges.

"Today the European Union aims to build a Europe, and more specifically an enlarged Europe, which respects freedom and the identity of all the people that compose it. Only by uniting its peoples can Europe master its destiny and develop a positive role in the world."

The European Union was at the service of its citizens - while keeping their own specific values, customs and languages, European citizens should feel at ease in the "European home", it added.

European leaders decided to celebrate May 9 as `Europe Day` during the Milan Summit in 1985.