Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-04-Speech-2-014"
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"en.20060704.4.2-014"2
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".
Mr President, in many ways I find it very difficult to know what to say today, because I, unlike many of my colleagues, am from a generation that does not have a living memory of the tragedy that was the very foundation of the European Union.
However, I read history and I have some knowledge and understanding of it. We are speaking today about the 70th anniversary of Franco’s coup. An atrocity or a tragedy on the European continent is commemorated in the history books for every single day going back over 227 years.
I suppose, then, what we really should be focusing on is that fascism, communism, imperialism and the totalitarian regimes we have experienced on our continent have a common thread: a lack of respect for human difference and different ideas and an intolerance towards those who want to chart a different path. Whether we are talking about Potsdam, Hungary, Gdańsk, Siberia, Spain, Portugal or Ireland, those who have tried to impose their will on others have always failed, because the very essence of our humanity is the desire to be free to ensure that we can live and interact with others.
That is why it is most important that we not only learn from the mistakes of the past but also ensure that we never repeat them. Rather than criticising or pointing the finger and saying that this tragedy was more dramatic, more damaging or more influential in European politics than others, let us agree that it happened and use it as an example. In Europe today, we have been able to overcome those differences; we have found a forum and a way forward in which people from different countries, with different ideologies, different histories and different interpretations of the same history can come together and find common ground and a common cause.
The best thing that we can do today in the European Parliament is to encourage Prime Minister Zapatero in his efforts to bring together what were previously irreconcilable peoples to find a common way forward in the Basque region. That is not to forgive the atrocities that were committed or to say that the wrongs did not take place; it is to say that you cannot go on living in the past, you cannot remain bitter. When the opportunity for peace arises, we must seize it as it passes."@en1
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