Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-05-11-Speech-3-142"
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"en.20050511.16.3-142"2
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"Ladies and gentlemen, today this House is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, which was the most terrible war in history. It claimed the lives of millions of people and led to the annihilation of the Jews, as well as plunging Europe into the depths of savagery, economic devastation and moral decay. We should bow our heads in memory of this time and commemorate the victims of this war.
Ladies and gentlemen, even though there are certain key moments in our collective memory that allow us to join together in building a political community, each of the European nations remembers the 20th century in its own way. The reason for this is that our states and our peoples have experienced different historical and political events. There is, however, one thing that unites us, as we all remember the victims claimed by the war and the struggle for freedom and democracy. It is the memory of these things that provides a basis for our common European identity. Today we are commemorating the victims of the Nazi terror in the countries occupied by the Third Reich. We are also honouring the victims of the Holocaust, or in other words the genocide committed against the Jews in Europe during the Second World War, which was a crime that has no parallel in human history. We are commemorating the victory of the Allied nations over the Third Reich, and in particular the part played by the United States of America in liberating Europe. We are remembering all the soldiers who died in order to rid the world of Nazism, and the 14 million soldiers who fought in the Red Army. We are commemorating the losses suffered by all sides in the Second World War, as well as those who fell victim to Stalin during the war. The massacre of around 22 000 Polish citizens and prisoners of war in Katyn, and in other camps and prisons in the Soviet Union in the spring of 1940, has become a symbol of the latter. We are paying homage to those who fought for freedom, democracy and human rights, and we are particularly remembering the heroic resistance movement, which fought against fascism and occupation in the various countries. The ideals of this movement, and the willingness of its members to sacrifice themselves in a one-sided war, are now a true legacy to us, as well as something of which we can all be proud and a fine example for Europe’s young people.
Today I should like to commemorate the resistance movement in the Warsaw ghetto, and those who belonged to the Jewish Military Organisation and who took up arms on 19 April 1943 to defend the Jewish ghetto that had been created in Warsaw by the occupying powers. Although in military terms they had no chance of winning, fighting as they did in the midst of the war and in the heart of a Europe ruled by the Nazis, their fight did in fact have a deeper meaning. Nowadays we regard their heroism as the most powerful testimony to human spirit ever seen, and one of the moral foundations of the Europe that we have built. To echo the sentiments found in a manifesto of the Jewish Military Organisation, we are fighting for your and our freedom, and for your and our human, social and national honour and dignity.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are remembering that the end of the war did not bring true liberation, independence and democracy to all the nations of Europe. The end of the war meant new forms of oppression and a lack of sovereignty and democracy for Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. It also meant violations of fundamental human rights under the totalitarian
that was imposed on this part of Europe by the Soviet Union, the loss of independence for Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, and their incorporation into the Soviet Union. Throughout the 20th century, the Socialists, the Social Democrats and the Democratic Left adopted a stance of opposition to all forms of dictatorship and to all non-democratic regimes. We are a political movement that has always been on the side of democracy and human rights, whether in the Baltic states, in Central and Eastern Europe or in the countries of Southern Europe in which dictators came to power after the Second World War, namely Portugal, Spain and Greece.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am speaking today in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, on ground that bears the scars of wars and the downfall of Europe. Our forefathers met on this ground as soldiers on opposing sides. We now meet each other as citizens and as MEPs representing a uniting Europe. Since the 1950s, European integration and the construction of a European Community have been our response to the war. The conflicts between Europe’s nations were overcome in the process of setting up the European institutions, and this continues to be the case today. The European Union we have today is the product of three major democratic processes, namely the defeat of fascism in the war, the fall of the dictatorships in Southern Europe in the late 1970s and the victory of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.
A model of international order is being established in Europe on the basis of peace and cooperation, and a community is being set up in accordance with the principle of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, including the rights of minorities.
The various peoples that go to make up the European Union, which now has 25 Member States, have a variety of historical experiences behind them. Ratification of the Constitution for Europe will mean that a united Europe can be established, the goals of which are peace, justice and solidarity throughout the world. This Europe can also become a special area of human hope, to borrow the phrase used in the preamble to the Constitutional Treaty. Together we have travelled a long road, from a Europe overwhelmed by war, totalitarian regimes and human misery, to a democratic Europe in which free nations within the EU are jointly creating a European future."@en1
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