n Saturday, for the first time in almost 50 years, we observe Europe Day without the United Kingdom as a member state of the European Union. As ambassadors and high commissioners representing the EU and its 27 countries in the UK, we are nonetheless very keen to mark the date with all the citizens of this great country and with the millions of EU nationals who live and work in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We celebrate Europe on 9 May because on this same day in 1950, exactly 70 years ago, in the aftermath of the devastating second world war, Robert Schuman, the Luxembourg-born foreign minister of France, laid the foundations of our collective endeavour. He said then: “Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.” Since then, Schuman’s dream has come gradually to fruition, enabling many countries and millions of Europeans to enjoy freedom, democracy, fundamental rights and high standards of living, in what historians will register as the longest period of peace in our part of the world for many centuries. After progressively enlarging its scope, both politically and geographically, the EU became the biggest single market and the most important provider of development and humanitarian aid in the world, a true global actor committed to effective multilateralism. With almost half a billion citizens, it brings together peoples and nations from all over Europe who are proud of their history and culture but know they will be stronger together. It is telling that this year, we also mark the 25th anniversary of the accession to the union of Austria, Finland and Sweden, and the 40th anniversary of the historic Solidarity movement in Poland. All this and much more is what we are proudly celebrating today. We do so while looking forward, with confidence, to the future of our union, focused on finding a common way out of the health emergency, ensuring an inclusive economic recovery and building the foundations for sustainable development in Europe and around the world. The United Kingdom made a significant contribution to European achievements before and during its 47 years of membership of the European Union. It is thus only natural for us to celebrate Europe Day also with the British people, its workers and entrepreneurs, its researchers, its teachers and scholars, its artists, its farmers and fishermen, its doctors and nurses. Today, our thoughts go out particularly to the victims of Covid-19 and their families and to all of the dedicated care and frontline workers around the country. The current unprecedented health emergency has brought us closer together – within each of our countries and among the 27, as well as between all of us in the EU and our British friends. We all know that Covid-19 spares no one – no family, no country. We all know that only together will we be able to overcome it. In our cities, towns and villages, on both sides of the Channel, we have been witnessing an outpouring of dedication, kindness and altruism. It should not come as a surprise: solidarity is indeed part of our DNA, in the European Union as in the United Kingdom. EU nationals employed by the NHS have worked tirelessly, side by side with their British colleagues, to save lives since the outbreak of the pandemic. An EU repatriation programme helped almost 2,000 British citizens stranded around the globe to return home safely. British flights did the same for EU citizens. These examples illustrate how the most challenging situations bring to the fore the best in each of us, as the Queen so eloquently highlighted in her broadcast to the nation on 5 April. A democratic decision, which we regret but fully respect, was made by the United Kingdom to leave the EU. We are now implementing the transitional provisions of the withdrawal agreement while negotiating the terms of our future relations. For anyone who may have doubted that a close future partnership between the UK and the EU is of mutual interest, the ongoing health emergency has certainly provided ample food for thought. Indeed, in today’s globalised, interconnected and interdependent world, cooperation among nations and states – and peoples – is essential. A good example is what the UK and Italy are doing together on the climate crisis, in jointly ensuring that the Cop26 conference delivers a high level of global ambition to overcome this major challenge for mankind. Another is the ongoing global pledge to finance treatment and vaccination against Covid-19, of which the EU and the UK are major sponsors. We believe that cooperation and solidarity among countries, with full respect for sovereignty and diversity, are key factors in overcoming today’s challenges, starting with the present health emergency. We trust that these principles will also inspire the future relationship between the UK and the EU – and that is the friendly message that, as a united group of 28 ambassadors and high commissioners, we would like to convey to the British people on this Europe Day. This article was jointly authored by: João Vale de Almeida, ambassador of the European Union to the United Kingdom; Michael Zimmermann, ambassador of Austria; Ellen De Geest, chargé d’affaires of Belgium; Marin Raykov, ambassador of Bulgaria; Igor Pokaz, ambassador of Croatia; Andreas S Kakouris, high commissioner of Cyprus; Libor Sečka, ambassador of the Czech Republic; Lars Thuesen, ambassador of Denmark; Tiina Intelmann, ambassador of Estonia; Markku Keinänen, ambassador of Finland; Catherine Colonna, ambassador of France; Julia Gross, chargé d’affaires of Germany; Dimitris Caramitsos-Tziras, ambassador of Greece; Ferenc Kumin, ambassador of Hungary; Adrian O’Neill, ambassador of Ireland; Raffaele Trombetta, ambassador of Italy; Katarina Plātere, chargé d’affaires of Latvia; Renatas Norkus, ambassador of Lithuania; Jean Olinger, ambassador of Luxembourg; Joseph Cole, high commissioner of Malta; Simon Smits, ambassador of the Netherlands; Arkady Rzegocki, ambassador of Poland; Manuel Lobo Antunes, ambassador of Portugal; Sorin-Dan Mihalache, ambassador of Romania; Lubomír Rehák, ambassador of Slovakia; Tadej Rupel, ambassador of Slovenia; Carlos Bastarreche, ambassador of Spain; Torbjörn Sohlström, ambassador of Sweden