News

On 19 October in the hearing at the European Parliament, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Egidijus Meilūnas noted that Lithuania and other member states of the European Union aim to perpetuate the memory of crimes committed by totalitarian regimes primarily in order to avoid those crimes from happening in Europe again.

“We cannot have fair future as long as we do not know all the truth about Europe’s common past. Only when we shall fairly evaluate crimes committed by all totalitarian regimes and their victims, we shall be able to ensure that there will be no favourable circumstances created for the revival of the ideologies that happened to be so harmful to people and society,” said E.Meilūnas.

The hearing regarding the European Commission’s report “The memory of the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes in Europe” was organized by the European People’s Party (the Group of the European Parliament).

The hearing focused on the subjects that are important to Lithuania: legal basis for the criminalization of the denial of crimes committed by totalitarian regimes, educative activities for the preservation of common memory, the EU’s financial programmes dedicated to the memory of totalitarian regimes.

President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek and Member of the European Parliament from Latvia, Chair of the informal parliamentary group “The Reconciliation of European Histories” Sandra Kalnietė delivered introduction speeches.

At the event, Lithuania was represented by Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania Emanuelis Zingeris and Member of the Seimas Gintaras Songaila.

The possibility in the future to return to the concept of a legal instrument at the European level that would criminalize the denial of crimes committed by totalitarian regimes remains the main objective in this field for Lithuania and other like-minded member states of the EU.

At the hearing, participants welcomed the establishment of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience on 14 October 2011. This is an important initiative, which will provide support for cooperation among various research centres, national research institutes and other non-governmental organizations, specialising in the subject of totalitarian history.

19 academic institutions from 13 countries are engaged in the activities of the Platform. At this Organisation, Lithuania is represented by the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania and the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania.