Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-26-Speech-3-149"
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"en.20050126.8.3-149"2
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"Members of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, today’s sitting of this House is a special one. It is taking place on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz, and it is both a commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Soviet Army and a tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.
I come from Poland, a country that witnessed the extermination of European Jews and Roma and the deaths and suffering of others under the military occupation of Nazi Germany. It is also a country that lost a large number of its elite and around three million of its Jewish citizens in the concentration camps. The Nazi authorities built extermination camps on occupied territory in Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Chelmno, and these camps were where the genocide of Jews was carried out. Auschwitz has become a symbol of this crime, which is unparalleled in the entire history of humanity. My generation grew up in the shadow of the Second World War, which had been so disastrous for Poland, and in the shadow of the genocide that accompanied this war.
Today I am speaking before the European Parliament, a symbol of an anti-fascist and anti-totalitarian Europe and of a Europe that has writ large the defence of human rights, as well as tolerance and democracy. The memory of the Holocaust must
prompt us as Europeans, and also the European institutions, to take special duties upon ourselves as part of a global civilisation in the twenty-first century.
Members of the Council, we are constantly being reminded of the existence of anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racism in Europe. We have to deal with the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and of Jewish ritual objects, and with displays of intolerance towards the Jewish community. Jews are regularly deprived of their right to Europe’s heritage, despite the fact that in historical terms they were one of the first groups to settle on the European continent. We have to deal with xenophobia and with openly racist acts against emigrants, as well as with religious and moral intolerance and with aggression against sexual minorities.
Does the Council not believe it to be appropriate for the European Union to set about creating a special education programme that prepares young people to create a European society based on multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-faith principles?
Other tasks await the European Union in the field of external policy. Does the Council anticipate stepping up the EU’s political activity and economic involvement in the Middle East, in order to make the European Union a guarantor of peace and democracy in the region? The European Union’s future priorities should include development policy, aid for developing countries and humanitarian aid. The Union is also called upon to take measures to promote human rights and democratisation in various parts of the world. It needs to respond appropriately in regions where genocide, murder or violence could occur against a background of prejudice for reasons of nationalism, religion, race, social class or traditions. Is the Council aware of these challenges? Is it aware of what is expected of the Union on the threshold of a new century?"@en1
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