Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-21-Speech-1-118"
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"en.20080421.15.1-118"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank all MEPs who have taken part in this debate, at what is clearly a critical stage. We have heard some particularly moving accounts of past events which some of you have experienced at first hand.
I should very much like to clear up any misunderstandings. In the case of Mr Beazley, in particular, I do think that there has been a misunderstanding. I made a speech that had been prepared for me, but I have to say that I may well have been misunderstood. Every Member State has responsibilities, it has to be said. However, the Union most certainly does intend to face up to its responsibilities. We want the truth, we want the whole truth, and if the Commission opened the debate – it was my colleague, Franco Frattini, who opened the debate at the hearing – it is precisely because we want to get to the bottom of the truth. This must be made quite clear. We want not only each Member State to be held individually responsible for honouring this duty to remember, but also all EU citizens to feel a sense of solidarity and involvement in the tragic events that have taken place in some of our Member States. In this respect, I would like to say, and, in fact, I did say in my opening statement, that I am aware that, in the west especially, we have not always grasped the full extent of the atrocities and heinous crimes experienced by our friends from those Member States that have been subjected to various forms of occupation and have lived under Stalinist occupation.
Therefore, I have come here today, in person, because I would like to reassure you that the Commission will continue this discussion and will ensure that it provides the basis, in particular, for the study that we are going to carry out in order to look at how the various laws and practices have actually been applied in the Member States with a view to remembering totalitarian crimes.
Obviously, the Council statement does not refer specifically to Stalinist crimes but speaks generally of totalitarian regimes. However, it is quite clear from the context in which this statement was adopted, particularly in the Member States that were behind it, that the issue of remembering Stalinist crimes lies at the very heart of this process. I believe that this has to be said, and, when I opened this debate, I emphasised that any form of totalitarism, any totalitarian regime that has resulted in a denial of the human person and his fundamental rights, is totally unacceptable. In this regard, and some of you have emphasised this point, knowledge about experiences of other types of totalitarian regimes may be helpful in identifying the means by which the very acts of abuse and barbarism that you have condemned actually came about.
I therefore believe that this study must be very broad in scope and clearly should not disregard any form of totalitarism. Nor should this debate provide an opportunity for base political exploitation. The Commission is naturally aware of this risk, but were the European Union to remain silent on the tragic past of some of our Member States, this would serve only to increase such a risk and to create a great divide between the new and the old Member States. This is why we must move forward together.
Therefore, Mr President, I should just like to ask what, essentially, is the purpose of all this? It is so that we may guard against any form of revisionism, any historical untruth.
Secondly, we must also, by remembering, prevent these totalitarian regimes from returning to haunt us. Finally, we have a duty of reconciliation that is clearly associated with this approach. However, I would also urge that we must look to the future, and some have emphasised the need to move towards the introduction of a directly binding European law to prevent these totalitarian regimes from ever returning to haunt us.
I should like to reassure you, ladies and gentlemen, that, quite apart from these few words of response, I am personally entirely convinced that we all, as Europeans, have a collective duty of solidarity to establish the truth, our truth as Europeans, without disregarding or diminishing the crimes that have been committed under various totalitarian regimes. In this respect, I believe that our friends from Eastern Europe need especially to appreciate that we are committed to seeking the truth and will not rest until it is known."@en1
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