March for Europe: 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome
Tomorrow, the European Union will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. Although the main march will take place in Rome, hundreds of European citizens are expected to come.
On 25 March 1957, the heads of State and government from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed the treaty of Rome, considered a key step towards the European Union. While populism is raising across Europe and in order to celebrate this 60th anniversary, the pro-EU foundations organise marches for Europe on Saturday.
The main one will of course take place in Rome, where thousands of people are expected to attend the event. But as Brussels is one of the EU capitals, it will also host such a march from 2pm to 4pm at Place du Luxembourg. The event is organised by Stand up for Europe, together with JEF Belgium, European Citizen Platform, Pulse of Europe Belgium, EU Logos, 1989 Generation Initiative and other youth organisations.
“We have planned this march by ourselves. We did not want the EU institutions to organise it, as we need to show that the European citizens could do it. The EU belongs to its citizens and we need to send this message: ‘The citizens’ initiative are strong and we need to defend Europe’”, Jules Bejot, project manager at Stand up for Europe, explained Brussels Express.
“Although it does not seem obvious, it is quite a big deal to attract people to march for the EU in Brussels”, Jules added. From 500 to 1,000 persons are supposed to attend there.
“We would have liked to host the event outside the EU bubble, but other demonstrations were organised already in Brussels. This is why it will take place at Place du Luxembourg”, Jules concluded.
As it will be a citizen march, no EU official will take the floor, although a couple of MEPs have decided to join.
