Celebration of 50 Years of European Treaties
When
22 March 2007
Client
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Brief
Organise a high-profile event to celebrate 50 years of European Treaties but avoid a gathering of the usual suspects. Ensure the maximum amount of media attention.
An unconventional celebration of 50 years of European cooperation. The surroundings were stately (the Knights’ Hall in the Binnenhof, the seat of Dutch government in The Hague), the programme was full of exciting cross-overs, the event attracted an extremely diverse public (Queen Beatrix, several celebrities of the Europe project and an army of school newspaper editors) and the whole event was recorded live by NOS, the Dutch Broadcasting Corporation.
The celebration
On 22 March, a very mixed group came together to celebrate the ongoing process of European unification. Among the invitees were Queen Beatrix, the members of the new cabinet, European diplomats, so-called celebrities of the Europe project and a large group of young people and schoolchildren. The programme offered different cultural reflections on the European Union and the most recent history of the Old Continent.
> The NOS broadcast live from the event
> All images from the celebration
The 150 young people came from schools all over the country. Television presenter Sophie Hilbrand led a press conference in the Nieuwspoort press centre for editors of school papers. The enthusiastic press fired questions at the Secretary of State for European Affairs Frans Timmermans and others. At another gathering, schoolchildren spoke to the new Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen. They joined the event in the Knights’ Hall later on.
The highlights
Publicist Pieter Hilhorst had written a theatre piece, the clean up of Europe, which was performed by actors from Johan Simons’ renowned theatre group NTGent.
In between the different parts of the programme, the filmic journey Meanwhile in Europe was shown, a BKB / Prospektor production. The film travels through the Europe of past and present, from the Romanian countryside, to the southern border on Granada, from Estonia to Berlin. And beyond.
The Hungarian DJ and composer Yonderboi and the Dutch singer-songwriter Wende Snijders made an unlikely cross-over of styles. Triphop, electro and Eastern-European folk met pop, the French chanson and the Dutch lied.
On Zeus’ back was the performance-installation by the Dutch fashion designer Aziz Bekkaoui. A spectacular performance in which fashion, design, images and sound were brought together. Aziz told the story of amorous Zeus who, disguised as a bull, captures princess Europe. He used iconographic representations of historical events, appealing in this way to the collective European memory.
Background
On 25 March 1957, the treaty was signed in Rome that laid the foundations of the European Union. A lot has changed since then.
In 1957, six countries supported the treaty. Fifty years later, the EU has 27 member states. New cooperative alliances continue to be forged.
But there are also serious doubts about the expansion of the Union and the extent of European cooperation. The Netherlands and France declared a clear NO in the referenda on the European Constitution.