One Man Seeks Lyrics to Unite The Fractious European Union:
Christoph Leitl knew there was something missing when he stood for the European anthem at a gathering last summer. “Everybody in the room was mute,” he says. That’s because the anthem — Beethoven’s soaring “Ode to Joy” from the Ninth Symphony — doesn’t have official lyrics.
Actually, as the article later explains, Beethoven spent 30 years finding the right tune to go with German poet Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” — but those words aren’t good enough for the EU, even though they’re oddly appropriate:
Your magic powers join again
What custom strictly did divide
Brotherhood unites all men
Where your gentle wing spreads wide….