The Ode to Joy, a snappy motto and a waving flag: this is the recipe for a proud and happy European citizen, MEPs have decided.

The European Parliament is to promote greater use of EU symbols in order to help people to identify with the union, even though the flag, motto and anthem have been criticised as the trappings of statehood. Scrapping references to the symbols was cited by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and others as a key difference between the EU Constitution — rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005 — and its successor, the Lisbon Treaty.

Their disappearance from the treaty has also been cited as a key reason by some governments - including Britain — as to why referendums were not necessary on the new document. Writing in September last year Jim Murphy, the Europe Minister, declared: “Some may discount the significance of the removal of the EU flag and anthem and title of Foreign Minister [ in the Lisbon treaty] but these are another clear sign that the UK’s vision of a Europe of sovereign states has won out.”

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, told the House of Commons last July that “it is good that the symbols, flags and anthems, which distracted attention from the discussion of the European constitutional treaty, are done away with so that we can focus on what will make the EU useful to this country — jobs, climate and energy, the issues that matter to ordinary people.”

The symbols have their drawbacks. MEPs want the Ode to Joy — the finale of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony — to be played at many more official occasions. While it is undeniably “exultant and sublime music” by a composer “who is one of the best symbols of European genius”, it was also used to celebrate Hitler’s birthday and became the anthem of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia.

And the motto — to be published on all material from the European Parliament — is “United in Diversity”, which might not catch on.

MEPs are undaunted. “Symbols are vital elements of any communication process,” they said yesterday. “Indeed, symbols may be a decisive element for the public’s emotional attachment to these organisations.

“ [They] convey an emotional image of the underlying values of the organisations they represent, they play a part in making abstract ideas intelligible, they facilitate communication and participation and they help to bring the organisations that they symbolise closer to the citizens, thereby contributing to their legitimacy.”

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, said: “We were told that the symbols would disappear — of course, we knew they would not — and now they are trying to ram them down our throats.”

Richard Corbett, a Labour MEP, defended the decision promote the EU symbols. “They are alleged by eurosceptics to be the trappings of statehood, but if that is true then the International Olympic Committee has the trappings of statehood because it has a flag and an anthem.”

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