The European Parliament,
– having regard to the universal principles of human rights and the fundamental principles of the European Union as a community based on common values,
– having regard to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted on 10 December 1948,
– having regard to the Framework Decision on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law adopted by the Council of the European Union on 26 February 2008,
– having regard to its resolution of 12 May 2005 on the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in placeEurope,
– having regard to Resolution 1481 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of 26 January 2006 on the need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian Communist regimes,
– having regard to the hearing on crimes committed by totalitarian regimes organised by the Commission in CityplaceBrussels on 8 April 2008,
– having regard to the resolutions and declarations on the crimes of totalitarian Communist regimes adopted by a number of national parliaments,
– having regard to the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism adopted on 3 June 2008,
– having regard to its declaration on the proclamation of 23 August as European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism adopted on 23 September 2008,
– having regard to the forthcoming Prague Conference on Holocaust Era Assets and the initiatives taken in this area by the US Congress,
– having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas the 20th-century history of placeEurope is marked by massacres of human beings by other human beings on an extraordinary scale made possible mainly by the usurpation of absolute power by totalitarian Communist and Nazi regimes,
B. whereas the extreme forms of totalitarian rule practised by the Nazi, fascist and Soviet Communist dictatorships led to premeditated and massive crimes being perpetrated against millions of human beings and their basic and inalienable rights on a scale never before seen in history,
C. whereas European integration was a direct response to the wars and terror caused by the totalitarian regimes on our continent,
D. whereas the international moral and political appraisal of these crimes is asymmetrical, given that there is still no authoritative, generally accepted European assessment of the crimes of totalitarian Communism,
E. whereas there is an evident need for the public exposure and for a moral assessment of the practices of the totalitarian Communist regimes, which took the form of systematic and ruthless military, economic and political repression of the people by means of arbitrary executions, mass arrests, deportations, the suppression of free expression, private property and civil society and the destruction of cultural and moral identity and which deprived the vast majority of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe of their basic human rights and dignity,
F. whereas the moral and political appraisal of totalitarian crimes does not in any way undermine the supremacy of an individual approach to these crimes, which can be judged only on the basis of the principles of the rule of law, which do not recognise collective criminal responsibility,
G. whereas Europe will never be united unless it is able to reunite its history, recognise Communism and Nazism as a common legacy and conduct an honest and thorough debate on all the totalitarian crimes of the past century,
H. whereas, five years after the 2004 enlargement, knowledge among Europeans about the totalitarian regimes which terrorised their fellow citizens in Central and Eastern Europe for more than 40 years, separating them from democratic European by means of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall, is still alarmingly superficial and inadequate,
placeI. whereas this situation has also brought about de facto inequality among the victims of different totalitarian regimes, with millions of victims of Communist totalitarianism deprived of justice, international recognition of their suffering and pan-European solidarity,
J. whereas the continuing ambiguity in our approach to the crimes of totalitarian Communist regimes against millions of their citizens has proved to be an obstacle to the strengthening of European solidarity and equality and is contributing to the mental division of the EU into 'West' and 'East',
K. whereas in 2009 a reunited Europe will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Communist dictatorships in Central and Eastern Europe and of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which should provide both an opportunity to enhance awareness of the past and recognise the role of democratic citizens’ initiatives and an incentive to strengthen feelings of togetherness and cohesion,
L. whereas Commissioner Jacques Barrot, in a plenary debate of 21 April 2008, expressed his conviction that all Europeans together have a duty to establish a common truth, without exclusion and without minimising the crimes perpetrated by different totalitarian regimes,