The EU has a veritable obsession with new logos and slogans. It brands everything it does with the blue with yellow stars or some variation thereof. There has been a virtual explosion of logos and brands. Most people know the blue flag with the yellow stars, but not many people know that each EU department, programme, competition, agency, institution has or had its own brand and logo.

The number of logos over the last few years is over 400 according to the Commission. Every logo is developed by a designer – often an external consultant, and it costs lots of money to create them. It is near impossible to figure out how much this has all cost. The Commission logo – a modernist outline of the Commission headquarters Berlaymont building cost €400,000. The Council and Parliament followed suit with logos featuring their buildings.

The EU created the concept of ‘European Days’ to call attention to things they deem important. There are the European Days for Languages, for Disabled People, Civil Justice, the Entrepreneur, Healthy Food and Cooking and even one for Media Monitoring, and many more. Each cost money to organise. For example, the European Day of Disabled People costs about €500,000 every year – most of which goes to a PR/event agency. Over €100 million has been spent since 2000 on ‘European Years of…..’  Sometimes they choose ridiculous themes: there have been ‘European Years of…: ’Education through Sport’, and ‘Intercultural Dialogue’ for example.