European anthem

I would ask you to rise for the European anthem.

Who is the owner of the symphony from which we have taken our European anthem?

Beethoven was generally seen as the natural choice for a European anthem.

The technical quality of the European anthem this morning was appalling.

We will now hear the European anthem.

(The House rose and the European anthem was played)

I shall therefore ask you to please agree to rise while we play the European anthem in memory of President Pflimlin.

Mr Poignant, listening to you singing the Marseillaise or even the European anthem would certainly be a great pleasure.

(Coudenhove-Kalergi first proposed An die Freude as European anthem).

Ladies and gentlemen, may I ask you to stand, or remain standing, for the European anthem in honour of Salih Osman.

Coudenhove-Kalergi also proposed Beethoven's Ode to Joy as the music for the European Anthem.

One of Rowan Atkinson's pseudo-German lines in his performance, "Robert Bennington sings the European Anthem"

The European anthem is based on the prelude to "The Ode to Joy", 4th movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

Friedrich Schiller wrote his Ode to Joy (the literary base of the European anthem) for the Dresden Masonic Lodge in 1785.

In 1955 he proposed the Beethoven's Ode to Joy as the music for the European Anthem, a suggestion that the Council of Europe took up 16 years later.

The European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie decided to break with tradition and play the European anthem by itself instead of the individual anthems from participating European nations.

Herbert von Karajan to conduct a special performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony - the European anthem - at the Royal Albert Hall in London on the Führer's birthday.

We all felt this emotion when, accompanied by the Ode to Joy, our European anthem, we saw the ten new flags hoisted alongside the 15 already flying on the masts in front of Parliament.

To the strains of the European anthem, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," the children loosed the balloons and up they sailed, over the stone banner of St. James the Moorslayer and into a clear blue sky.

I should like to express through this short point of order both my admiration for the great musician Beethoven and my disapproval of the fact that we are regularly subjected to a European anthem which has disappeared into ...

In a great painting titled "Ode to Joy (European Anthem)," a few bars of Beethoven's music emanate from the brain of a multicolored muse in a bikini who rises from stacks of hamburgers.

Although the Ode to Joy became the unofficial European anthem in the 50's, the decision to make it an official anthem was finally taken in 1971 by the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe.

I should also like to thank you, Mr President, for having given us the opportunity to listen to the European anthem again - it truly is the world's finest anthem, and it is always a very moving experience to hear it.

Second proposal: could we not produce a Latin text for the European anthem that everybody can sing in unison, which the individual Member States can then translate into their own languages, while the common text would be in Latin?

Blue-and-gold European flags surrounded the stadium, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (adopted as the European anthem) was played at the opening and closing ceremonies, and the entire arena was at one stage lit up in EEC colours.