The Flags

European Scouting is a movement of education. In an international brotherhood for youth, such as scouting, the Flag Ceremony is a manifestation of peace and union around a common ideal.

The ceremony of the three flags shows the cohesion of the participants in a same faithfulness to the promise and to the principles of European Scouting: service of God, service of the mother land, service of Europe. Each “centre of faithfulness” is symbolised by a different emblem: the Baussant, the national flag and the European flag.

Nothing must be added to each flag.

The order of the flags evokes the meaning of each one and the relationships between each of them: in the protocol, the priority is given to the flag of the place where we are (in case of a journey, the flag of the visited country).

The European flag, with the symbolic number of twelve stars, represents not only the States but also the natural communities of the continent. It is hoisted at the end of the line of flags, as a conclusion. It shows that at the end of the gathering which is happening now, Europe will have to unite the various parts into a common fraternal circle. The central place is always reserved to the Baussant, because it represents the spiritual centre of any life, the indispensable foundation of any human society, and the supreme aim of scouting, as it was defined by Baden Powell at the world Jamboree of Vogelenzang, en 1937:

“The Reign of God in peace”.

Seen from the gathering place, the pavilions composing the three flags are placed from left to right in the following order: the national flag, the Baussant and the European flag. The pavilions are hosted at the same time during the Flag ceremony. They may float on different masts or on a unique mast, as long as this mast has a sufficient number of halyards, suitably distant from one another on the main horizontal yard.

The pavilions must be hoisted at the same height.

A unit camping abroad may, in the same conditions, hoist either the Baussant only, or the three flags. But in this case the row will always have four pavilions, in the following order, from left to right: the national pavilion of the place (always first), the national pavilion of the country where the scouts come from, the Baussant and the European flag. The same order is observed if the unit is having a twining with a unit of the visited country.

If several countries take part in the meeting (a federal camp for instance) their pavilions are placed between the pavilion of the welcoming country and the European pavilion, in the alphabetical order of the names of the represented countries (in order to avoid any contest, it is suitable to follow the international code adopted for the number plates of cars).