MAY 9: THE DAY WITH TRIPLE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Throughout history, May 9 marked three times the evolution of Romania. Independence Day proclaimed in 1877, the victory of the United Nations Coalition in the Second World War 1945 and Europe Day - are the reasons for celebration for the Romanian people, on May 9th.

• The Independence Day proclaimed in 1877

  The proclamation of state independence on May 9, 1877 was not a spontaneous act but a culmination of the growing efforts of those years, a throw overboard of the last link of Ottoman suzerainty.

  On that memorable day, Mihail Kogâlniceanu declared in the country's Parliament: "we are independent, we are an independent nation". The proclamation of independence was to be consecrated and defended on the battlefield by the participation of the Principality of Romania in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and then recognized by the European powers.

  
  
  
  
  
  
• Victory of the Allied Powers over Nazi Germany

  More than half a century later, on May 9, 1945, millions of people experienced the joy of capitulating to the Third Reich. And with the signing of the unconditional surrender of Germany, which took place at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin, the most devastating conflagration in the history of the European continent came to an end, a war that cost the lives of over 40 million people and immense material destructions.

  The great victory over fascism in May 1945 found the Romanian army in the front line, along with the other forces of the coalition against Nazi Germany. By mobilizing its full material and human potential, through the sacrifices given on the battlefields, the Romanian people inscribed their name in the place of honor, in the chronicle of the war, bringing a valuable contribution to the salvation of human civilization, seriously threatened by the Nazism.

  
  
  
  
  
  
• Europe day

  On 9 May 1950, five years after the end of the Second World War, the French foreign minister, Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman, proposed the implementation of a plan developed by the French economist Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet, considered the architect of European Union, by placing the production of coal and steel under the control of a common authority, in order to control in this way the production of armaments and the possibility that a future military conflict could be avoided. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was hereby established by signing the Treaty of Paris on 18 April 1951.

  This moment is considered decisive for the establishment of the European Union, and the leaders of the European countries present at the Summit of the European Council in Milan in 1985 decided that May 9 would become Europe Day since then.

  Romania acceded to the principles of the European Union in 1995, and on April 25, 2005 the member states confirmed its accession, being received in January 2007 in the European Union.