“Scores of public buildings around the country are being ordered to fly the blue-and-gold European Union flag to mark the occasion next Monday” say the Daily Express and Daily Star.

They quote Cabinet Minister Eric Pickles “savaging” Brussels for ordering his Whitehall office to fly the EU flag.

Full Fact has previously covered questionable reporting of European issues in these papers, which opted out of the Press Complaints Commission system of self-regulation earlier this year.

Having left the PCC the Express and the Star can publish untrue claims with no avenue for rebuttal.

So we were curious whether this story, apparently backed up by Ministers, was true.

You may get the impression from reading the coverage that there is a general rule that public buildings must fly the EU flag on ‘Europe day’ on pain of a fine. Some of the papers’ online readers certainly did.

That is not the case but the story is not groundless.

Bodies which manage EU structural funds, their grant making schemes to solve economic or social problems, are required to fly the flag on Europe day and the following week.

The EU Regulations for recipients of structural funds state:

“The managing authority shall be responsible for organising at least the following information and publicity measures: …

“(c) flying the flag of the European Union for one week starting 9 May, in front of the premises of each managing authority;”

(Commission Regulation (EC) No 1828/2006, Article 7)

The European Commission says that just two Whitehall departments are managing authorities for these funds, Eric Pickles' Communities Department, and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Anyone else flying the EU flag on Europe day next Monday will be doing it by choice.

So it is not the case that “scores of public buildings around the country are being ordered to fly the blue-and-gold European Union flag.”

Even if you take into account other properties owned by those Departments, the Commission told us: “Apart from the two [DCLG and DWP] no other public building in the UK has to fly the flag on 9 May, though of course some may choose to do so.”

As for the “swingeing fine from Brussels threatened for those that disobey,” the spokesman said that “there are no plans to fine Member States that fail to fly the EU flag on Europe Day.”

When we asked whether a power to fine existed, the spokesman stated unambiguously: “The Commission would not fine countries that did not fly the flag on Europe Day.”

That of course is not to say that no such power exists.

Conclusion

The Express’s and Star’s stories have a real basis but a casual reader is likely to get a misleading impression of the scope of the requirement. In fact it only applies to two buildings and fines are not in play.

If European flags are festooned around Britain like royal wedding bunting next week it will merely be a tribute to the deep enthusiasm of the British people for the European project.

However, we suspect it will be some time before the Daily Express starts offering this compact mirror in European colours in its shop.

Photo credit (EU flag): openDemocracy