Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-25-Speech-3-381"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2009-03-25"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:European conscience and totalitarianism (debate)2
dcterms:Language	"nl"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20090325.30.3-381"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2009-03-25-Speech-3-3822
lpv:speaker	lp:Jan Marinus Wiersma2
lpv:spokenAs	member; Delegation for relations with the countries of south-east Europe (2007-03-15--2009-07-13)3 member; Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (2004-09-15--2009-07-13)3 vice-chair; PES (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3 member; SEDE (2007-01-31--2009-07-13)3 substitute; INTA (2007-09-05--2009-07-13)3 unknown; Partij van de Arbeid (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3 member; AFET (2007-01-31--2009-07-13)3
lpv:translated text	". Mr President, my group is not against the debate that is being held today per se, but we do have a great deal of difficulty with summarising the result of this debate in a resolution. It gives the impression that we can lay down in a resolution how we should deal with Europe’s history, and specifically with the totalitarian past. As was apparent in the negotiations that have just taken place, they were all too quickly bogged down by what wordings we could or could not use in such a resolution. Let us, please, leave it to historians to decide how precisely our history should be interpreted, knowing that objectivity is impossible. Obviously, politicians can help ensure that sufficient attention is paid to the past, and that certainly also applies to the crimes perpetrated by Hitler and Stalin. Those crimes must never be forgotten and we must honour the victims. We must also all be aware that our fellow Europeans in Central and Eastern Europe suffered under two totalitarian systems and that that is not the experience of people like me, born, as I was, in the Netherlands. Mr Geremek, a former Member of this House, quite correctly once commented that we have not yet achieved the reunification of our memories. As politicians, we have a responsibility when it comes to organising what it is that we want to commemorate specially, but let us do that in collaboration with historians. A day of commemoration for all the victims of the totalitarian systems in Europe in the 20th century is a good suggestion in itself, but let us work with historians to consider what the proper format and the right date for such a day should be so that everyone can support it. I, myself, am a historian. I think that if we were to link the day solely to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact it would not do justice to everything that happened in the 20th century. It is important to debate this. What are the dividing lines between politicians and historians? What do we want to commemorate, and how? The debate will undoubtedly rumble on. We, as a group, will certainly get involved. As an example of that, I want to show you this book, which will be coming out in two weeks’ time under the title and in which we especially left the floor to historians, and we hope that this will really contribute to the quality of the debate in this Parliament and, of course, elsewhere."@en1
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"The politics of the past, the use and abuse of history"1
lpv:videoURI	<go to Events_and_structure europarl>2

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