European Union

The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 member states, with an estimated population of just under 452 million as of 2026. Its roots go back to the European Coal and Steel Community, created by the Treaty of Paris, which came into force on July 23, 1952. Six countries took part: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. Basically, the idea was to tie together the coal and steel industries that fed wars, so that a new war between those nations became much less likely. The same six signed the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957, creating the European Economic Community, and the Maastricht Treaty turned the whole structure into the European Union on November 1, 1993. Today the EU has a single market, passport free travel inside the Schengen Area and a common currency, the euro, which is used by 21 of the member states.

Italy was part of this from the very beginning, and in several cases it was also the host. In the autumn of 1941, Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi wrote a manifesto for European federalism while confined on the island of Ventotene. Alcide De Gasperi is counted among the founding fathers of the project, alongside Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer. In June 1955, the Messina Conference laid the groundwork for the Treaty of Rome, which was then signed on the Campidoglio (the Capitoline Hill) in the Sala degli Orazi e Curiazi (the Hall of the Horatii and the Curiatii). Italian cities hosted other turning points as well. On June 28 and 29, 1985, the European Council met in Milan and decided to complete the single market by the end of 1992, which led to the Single European Act in February 1986. In Rome on October 27 and 28, 1990, a summit approved documents on political union and monetary union, and these fed into the talks that produced Maastricht.

Italy remains one of the heavyweights of the union. It is the third most populous member state, with about 58.9 million people, and it has the third largest economy in the eurozone. It is also one of only two EU countries, along with France, that can project military power outside Europe. The relationship has not always been smooth, though. Italy was once a strongly pro-European country, but Euroscepticism has grown over the years, and a 2023 Eurobarometer survey is reported to have found that about half of Italians did not trust the EU.

Note

As I’ve mentioned several times, I don’t like souvenir sheets like this one. I also don’t like the design of these particular stamps. I appreciate that they wanted to celebrate the members of the European Union, but they could have done it with nice drawings of actual places in each country or just each country’s flag like the United Nation flag series (see Flags: Canada & Somalia for example).

Contains 12 spots: own 12 – 12 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Sep 5, 2023

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot	own	catalog	subject	description
1.1	✓	2034	Buildings on Flag of Italy European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
1.2	✓	2035	Buildings on Flag of Belgium European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
1.3	✓	2036	Buildings on Flag of Denmark European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
1.4	✓	2037	Buildings on Flag of France European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
2.1	✓	2038	Buildings on Flag of Germany European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
2.2	✓	2039	Buildings on Flag of Greece European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
2.3	✓	2040	Buildings on Flag of Ireland European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
2.4	✓	2041	Buildings on Flag of Luxembourg European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
3.1	✓	2042	Buildings on Flag of Netherlands European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
3.2	✓	2043	Buildings on Flag of Portugal European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
3.3	✓	2044	Buildings on Flag of United Kingdom European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color
3.4	✓	2045	Buildings on Flag of Spain European Single Market	750₤ (jan 1993) comm., multi-color

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.

remaining stamps & stories in sub-album

page	story	note	used	need	ordered

Main Page		✓
Battle of Nikolayevk		✓
Carlo Goldoni		✓
Cervi Brothers		✓
Taxi Carriages		✓
Bank of Italy		✓
Lajos Kossuth		✓
Augusto Righi		✓
Mercy Brothers		✓
Jacopo Robusti		✓
St Mark’s Basilica		✓
Pietro Miliani		✓
United Nations		✓
Massimo Campigli		✓
WWII - 50th Anniversary		✓
Birds of Italy		✓
Historic Sites & Villas		✓
Rudolph Valentino, etc.		✓
Duomo in Milan		✓
National Federation of Press		✓
Atlanta Olympics		✓
Butterflies		✓
Comics		✓
Colleges: Perugia, Sassari, Salerno		✓
World Stamp Expo - Milan		✓
Cercignani & Uccello		✓
Giuseppe Morosini		✓
Antonio Rosmini		✓
Cavalcaselle		✓
John Cabot		✓
Antonio Pollaiuolo		✓
The Last Supper		✓
Fossils, Evolution Congress		✓
Pope John Paul II		✓
Ferrari Sheet		✓
Armed Forces		✓
Emancipation of Waldenses		✓