Materials from the Conference “Occupation after Liberation”

Agenda 
Speakers Bios
Summary of the Event
Audio Recording of the Entire Event
Photos of the Event
Speech of President Daul
Speech of MEP Vaidere
Speech of MEP Schopflin
Speech of MEP Landsbergis
Power Point of Mr. Mezmalis

Materials from the Seminar ‘Life After the Soviet Union’

 Agenda
Speakers Bios
Video address of Joseph Daul (MEP), President of the EPP Group in the European Parliament
Video address of Jerzy Buzek (MEP), former President of the European Parliament
Audio recording of the entire seminar
Photos from the event
EPP TV report on the event

Materials from the EPP hearing on the European Commission’s Report: The memory of the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes in Europe

 Multi Media

Photographs from the Hearing
EPPpress release
EPP TV coverage
Latvian TV

Materials from the Hearing

Commemorating 70 years from the first mass deportations from the Baltic States: “Your past is our past”. Tunne Kelam MEP

(MEPs also gathered by the memorial plaque, honoring those deported from the Baltic nations.)

At the opening of the plenary session, the Members of the European Parliament commemorated 70 years from the first mass deportations from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, conducted by the Soviet Union.

In his statement, the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek stressed that we need to remember many thousands of victims in the Baltic States which had been occupied since 1940 by the Soviet Union.   (see the full video of debate in the Plenary)

Letters from Siberia in the European Parliament

On June 14th, the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels will hosted an exhibition “Birch Bark Letters from Siberia.” The exhibition was organized by MEP Sandra Kalniete (EPP,Latvia), in collaboration with the Tukums Museum in Latvia. For one week, MEPs, staff and guests were able to acquaint themselves with letters which were written on birch bark and sent to the loved ones of Latvians who were forcefully deported to Siberia. Today, from several thousand such examples only 19 remain in the collections of Latvian museums, as historical evidence of this most tragic past. Elza Serdāne, the author of one such letter which has miraculously survived to this day, also took part in the official opening ceremony of the exhibition. At the age of 73, Elza is the active leader of the Politically Repressed Society in her home town of Madona. 

Members of the European Parliament ask that a Statue of Lenin be Removed

January 27th 2011, Members of the European Parliament (EP) have sent a letter to the Regional Council responsible for the French city of Montpellier, in which they request that a statue of Lenin is taken down and that a statue of the founder of China’s communist party, Mao Zedong, is not built. Sixty-eight MEPs, from 18 Member States, signed the letter drafted by Sandra Kalniete, Member of European Parliament (MEP) and chair of the Reconciliation of European Histories group in the EP. The letter was also signed by the Vice President of the EP, László Tőkés, and the former President of the EP, Hans-Gert Pöttering.

Meeting of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group

On September 22 2010 the informal group of MEPs in the European Parliament ‘Reconciliation of European Histories’ held its group meeting in Strasbourg, France. The group, whose main objective is “to reconcile the different historical narratives in Europe and to consolidate them into a united European story,” met with Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education in the European Parliament, MEP Doris Pack. The meeting centred on the topic of how to promote in the European population a better understanding and more knowledge of the most tragic pages of the 20th century.

Commemoration of the 70 year anniversary of the occupation of the Baltic’s takes place in the European Parliament

Strasbourg, 15th of June 2010 – Members of the European Parliament gathered by the memorial plaque, honoring those deported from the Baltic nations, to commemorate the 70 year anniversary of the occupation of the Baltic nations. In order to prevent such historical mistakes from reoccurring, many MEPs continue to remind the world of the horrors committed by the Stalinist regime.

First meeting of the ‘Reconciliation of European Histories’ informal group

On Thursday, 6 May 2010, 35 MEPs from five political groups established ‘Reconciliation of European Histories,’ an informal group of MEPs.