Prague, March 25 (CTK) – Some 100 supporters of the European Union took part in the March for Europe in the centre of Prague Saturday, marking the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaties that create one of the European integration pillars.
The march started at the Petrin lookout tower on which the organisers hanged out a giant ten-metre EU flag for several minutes.
The participants then continued to Hradcany Square outside Prague Castle, the presidential seat, crossed Charles Bridge to the Old Town and then returned across the Vltava River and ended the march in Klarov at 17:00.
Speeches were delivered there, for instance by MEP Jiri Pospisil (for TOP 09) and presidential candidate Marek Hilser. Czech Pirate Party chairman Ivan Bartos took party in the event as well.
The participants jointly sang the European anthem, the Ode to Joy composed by Ludwig van Beethoven.
The March for Europe was held all over the EU Saturday in memory of the signing of the Treaties of Rome, which laid foundations of the current EU.
The specific Czech goal of Saturday’s march was to provoke a public debate on a possible further development of the united Europe.
The treaties on the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) were signed in Rome on March 25, 1957.
Representatives of the EU 27 (that is without Britain), including Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka, met at the EU’s informal summit in Rome Saturday.
hol/dr
