Damaged statue of Stalin in the Fallen Monument Park,
Moscow | Catenca, Shutterstock.com
convergence on European historical memory is, the Union and the Union’s aim, namely to promote
among others, the Europe for Citizens programme. peace, the values of the Union and the well-being of
Originally launched in December 2006 (see Decision its peoples” (Article 2 letter a).
No 1904/2006/EC of the European Parliament and
of the Council) for the period from 2007 to 2013, Despite the political will to foster a collective
this programme established the legal framework historical memory at European level not just by
to support a wide range of activities and events words and declarations of intent, but also concrete
promoting active citizenship in Europe. Among the initiatives, the remembrance policy of the European
key objectives of the programme was to “develop Union is not lacking in tensions and conflicts, and is
a sense of European identity, based on common faced with a series of immanent dilemmas. These are
values, history and culture” (Article 1 para. 2 letter essentially threefold:
b). Due to the programme’s success, a new edition
of Europe for Citizens was agreed upon in April 2014
a) Parallelism of partly competing memory
for the timeframe 2014-2020 and with an overall frames, namely that of the “uniqueness of the
budget of 185.5 million EUR (Council Regulation Holocaust”, which has shaped Western European
(EU) No 390/2014). Among other things, this new Post-War culture, and that of “National Socialism
edition aims to strengthen – also financially – those and Stalinism as equally evil”, mainly reflecting
elements of the programme aimed at the formation Eastern European nations’ dominant historical
of a pan-European historical consciousness. The core experience in the twentieth century and their
objective is to finance projects that “raise awareness need to come to terms with their respective
of remembrance, the common history and values of communist pasts;
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Observing Memories
ISSUE 2