Jana Hybášková, Czech Republic
It is a tremendous honour for me to be here today in the presence of the Czech prime minister. I can thank him for one very important thing. You are well aware that when we met before two years ago, we put together the Prague Declaration. I would like to thank the tens of thousands of signatories who have signed the declaration up to now. I would also like to thank the parliaments who have signed up to it. The European Parliament’s European Conscience and Totalitarianism resolution arose out of this declaration. And it was at the last meeting of the General Council of the European Union under the Czech Presidency (which was already under the patronage of the prime minister) that the Council of Ministers of the European Union adopted and supported the European Parliament resolution. And ensuing from the European Conscience and Totalitarianism, it also made a commitment in this sense of the word that this history is a common European history, that communism was not some exotic eastern deviation, that it is a common horrific European legacy, and that we must also recognise it in the future and attempt to pass judgement on it. These conclusions from July’s Council of the Czech presidency were already established under the patronage of our Czech prime minister. And so far it is actually the most important legal proof that we have; it is a European Union document; and it is a European Union decision. This document has also given rise to the creation of a Platform of institutions dealing with the history, studying and passing judgement on communist and totalitarian regimes throughout Europe. And I hope that it will be the Czech government which will take this commitment further and actively support the establishment of the Platform so that it does not simply remain as a Council of Europe decision, but that we are actually able to accomplish this together as active Europeans, from the north, south, east and west.
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