How common is it to see EU/Europe flags in the country you live in and Europe as a whole? I feel so like I've seen a lot of pictures of them in some places in Europe; I'm curious how much different European countries put them up.


44 comments

  1. En Francia están en casi todos los Ayuntamientos, escuelas y edificios del gobierno (junto a la bandera francesa).
    En España no vi muchas, pero sí hay.

  2. It mostly pops up on signposts telling you that “x project was funded by the EU”, and on some governmental buildings.

    Other than that, people don’t really fly any flags outside of one specific holiday.

  3. For Portugal most Government/Public buildings fly three flags:

    -Portuguese Flag

    -Local Municipality Flag

    -The EU Flag.

  4. Usually out side political/official buildings, such as town halls etc but often outside hotels also.

    Flags are not typically hanging outside of people’s houses like in the USA for example.

  5. Can’t say I’ve ever really seen one in the wild except for on particular government buildings. Now I don’t live in a EU country, but can’t remember seeing them much in EU countries either.

  6. Here EU flags are displayed next to any national and regional flag in public buildings. The official order of flags on public buildings in Flanders (N-Belgium) is;
    – The Flemish Flag
    – The Belgian Flag
    – The European flag

    You are also allowed to add the Provincial and Commune flag after those.

  7. Eh it might be outside the local head municipality building (Townhall). Might. Many municipality buildings just have a Swedish flag and a flag with the municipal coat of arms or just the municipal coat of arms. You will find the EU flag outside the Parliament building iirc. But honestly I dont really see it anywhere regularly.

    Might be on some advertising for some project that it was funded by the EU.

  8. I’ve seen them on government buildings in different European capitals. Never seen one here in Norway (obviously, since we’re not in the EU, and for us it’s the EU flag, not just a collective Europe flag).

  9. Hotels and government buildings have them.

    Among private individuals I have never seen it. The Swedish flag, however, is very popular.

  10. In the Netherlands it’s pretty common at government buildings, usually next to municipal/provincial and national flags.

  11. Not at all in dutchieland, some government buildings. If flags are flown – it’s either the local town, or national flag.

  12. In germany you might find them at big government buildings that actually have something to do with the EU. Right now I can’t recall if I’ve ever actually seen one flying. But then again, even german flags aren’t that common in germany.

  13. Not common. It’s flown by daily only by EU bodies. It can be found from the background in an international summit, and is found in printed form in signs that tell a project was funded by the EU.

  14. I was visiting Tbilisi (which some would debate is/isn’t Europe) and I saw more EU flags than I have in every other country combined

  15. Spain: gov building and, EU projects. No one is hanging an EU flag on their balconies if that’s what you mean.

  16. In Bosnia they are usually on public buildings (municipality buildings, government buildings, cantonal buildings etc). Usually it goes: 1. BiH flag, 2. canton (or entity) flag, 3. European flag. 

    And on signs saying that the EU has funded something. 

  17. Common in the sense that the government flies it when the French flag is flown. We put flags on official buildings during specific events, most carry the French and the European flag, with the EU flag on the left when facing them from the street as the French flag has priority.

    On the civilian side, hotels will do it also. People do not fly the flag at their house so nothing to see there.

    Townhalls do not have to, but most do it when the French flag is flown. The extreme right mayors trend to pull them out as their party is anti Europe.

  18. The Scottish parliament still flies the EU flag to this day, we voted 62% to stay and we will return some day. 💙

  19. Depends how pro EU a country is. In Hungary, for example, you will only find the EU flag on signs with the text “funded by EU” at the few roads without life risking potholes.

  21. In Germany you find European flags next to most official buildings like mayor’s offices and city halls, state ministries and parliaments, courts, and of cours in Berlin next to federal ministries and the federal parliament. It flies next to local, state and federal flags.

  22. In Germany government buildings usually have a mix of municipality, state, country and EU flag. That’s where you see a lot of those. Also, printed or on plaques wherever the EU funded something, like an educational project or a building restauration.

    Also I know of two people who actually have EU flags in their windows or balconies because of politic conviction and idealism, but those are exceptions by far. It’s also generally rare for private people or non political organisations here to fly country flags except during football world and euro cups, so EU flags would even more unlikely.

  23. In Iceland (not a part of the EU) we put up a flag on national holidays.
    Private homes and some apartment buildings have flagpoles and if you have a flag and a pole, you use it.
    The presidents house (Bessastaðir) pulls up a flag when the president is at home 🙂

  24. Official buildings and hotels might fly them, besides that there are not that many flags flown in germany in general. We also don’t have flags on places like schools or something, but there might be exceptions.

    Where I live you might see more football club flags on private property than any official flags.

  25. Its a flag thats used on some government buildings. I dont know a single person who has the EU flag at home.

  26. We don’t really fly any flags here in italy. All government buildings and schools will have the Italian flag and the European flag, sometimes you see the regional flag or the towns flag too. You might encounter the Italian flag or the regional flag on private building but it’s fairly rare, in this case almost never the European flag

  27. I saw a lot of them in public squares, along with municipal and regional flags in Nord Brabant, the Netherlands. You don’t see that very often in coastal Croatia, where I’m from. We don’t even use municipal or regional flags, which is very common in the Netherlands.

  28. Pretty common to the point most people probably don’t even notice them. Gov buildings typically as well as sign posts for roads partly built with EU funding would be the most common spots and other projects also or outside hotels. You also can see it occasionally on billboards or in campaigns advertising other EU programmes.

  29. Only public buildings fly it alongside the Italian and if the building is owned by a locad administration, the regional/provincial/municipal flags.

    Outside of those you never see one being flown by private citizens and companies outside their homes/buildings.

  30. In the Netherlands only at government of multinational institutions along other flags. Normal citizens only put up the national flag at certain occasions (Euro/World cup, King’s day, Queen/princess’s birthdays, liberation day and memorial day), only racists will fly the flag constantly (or use the Prinsenvlag which has the red swapped for orange and was used by the NSB during the war).

  31. You mostly see them on institutional buildings: schools, museums, ministries, embassies of European countries, or on plaques of stuff funded by the EU.

    Very uncommon to see on people’s houses (which is also uncommon for the national flags in most of Europe, except on national holidays and such)

  32. Quite common around city halls, bridges and hotels.

    You can also sometimes see them outside large businesses that (presumably) has an international presence – or are EU funded operations.

  33. Here in France it’s very common, it usually tags along with the French flag everywhere. Public buildings like schools, town halls or the like have both a French flag and an EU flag. Then in big cities there are also sometimes flag poles with the flags of the EU, France, and local flags like the region and/or the city. In Paris, many bigger streets have French and EU flags on poles along the streets.

    Private individuals rarely have flags though. Some might have French flags but it is usually interpreted as a sign of nationalism. An EU flag would just be very unusual.

  34. It’s very uncommon in Denmark… Also, when flying the EU flag, it’s required by law to fly Dannebrog at equal (or higher) hight, too

  35. There are lots of small EU flags in Cluj along the main street. Also common in some small villages in Romania (Sâpǎnța for example). In Sweden where I live they are not so common.

  36. There are exceptions, but in a lot (most?) European countries, citizens do not put up ANY flag. In a lot of countries, flying the national flag as a private citizen has connotations with extreme nationalism. So you only really see flags on government buildings and hotels. For government buildings, there are usually 3 flags flown: the local flag, which can be city/municipal flag or provincial flag, etc, then the national flag, and the EU flag if they’re part of the EU.

    You’ll also see the EU flag on signs and billboards when the project is funded by the EU.

    Some countries that are not yet part of the EU, but are thinking about joining, might have more people flying EU flags to show their support for joining.

  37. In most countries they use it alongside tje national flag on public buildings and such, but in Nordic countries I feel like they don’t use it basically at all. This is most egregious in Denmark where they o use the national flag all the time, I Finland or Sweden they just don’t have much of a flag waving culture.

  38. You often see the country flag, EU flag, and the local town/region flag all together by the commune building, border, or any scenic place locals expect tourists to visit. Many countries.

  39. It’s generally flied together with the Greek flag in public institutions. Also in all public projects (because they are all EU-funded) as the commenter from Poland described.

  40. Usually govt buildings, EU funded projects and hotels.

    Sure you see the odd one in a window but it’s rare. Nothing like the US though.

    IMO, we should be replacing the US flags here with EU ones around hotels and such.

  41. In Hungary you rarely see flags of any kind, unless it’s a government building. We do have the project signs of course, but not that many, at least where I live. We used to put up the flag on national holidays like 15th March, 20th August, 23rd October, but maybe I just don’t go out so much, because I don’t see them around anymore unless it’s a school. Honestly, the only place in Europe I’ve ever seen flags around was Türkiye, and only the Turkish flag of course. It’s kind of weird how obsessed Americans are with flags.

  42. There’s one at Walibi Holland, an amusement park. I drove past it yesterday and I actually noticed precisely because it is relatively uncommon to see the flag flown.

  43. I see them outside hotels in Switzerland, and I’m pretty sure there’s one outside IKEA. In Spain they were on all government buildings

  44. Funny you should ask. Just recently I noticed quite a few eu flags with the german flag in the middle hanging from windowsills around here.

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