Report: Taking Stock of European Memory Policies Report: EUROM Meeting 2018 | Page 5

In this vein, he concluded by
emphasizing the necessity to rethink the
European institutions, to reform the
machinery of ordinary citizens in
participating in democracy, to guard the
quality of public debate, and to connect
democratic involvement with the
dimension of memory. “Freedom of
speech is not only freedom from
censorship, but taking care and guarding
the quality of public debate, also around
historical memory”.
He further pointed to the
possibility of bringing memory,
especially within European institutions,
to a meta level, where remembering
and forgetting are taught and portrayed
as
inherently
connected.
The
discussions also raised the notion of
remembrance as solidarity, and the
extent to which remembrance could be
used to foster a European sense of
solidarity. In these discussions however,
it was also stressed that the romantic
notion of unity has both detrimental and
useful effects, and that we shouldn’t
oversimplify such notions as merely
using for, or against us.
Roundtable 1
Europe for Citizen’s Programme:
future challenges
Gilles Pelayo
Head of Unit at Europe for Citizens (EACEA)
Pavel Tychtl
Policy officer at the DG Home
Chair: Jordi Guixé, EUROM director
The representatives of the
European Commission focused on the
future challenges of the Europe for
Citizens’ programme. The roundtable
was chaired by Jordi Guixé, director of
EUROM, and brought together Pavel
Tychtl, a Policy Officer at the European
Commission’s Directorate-General of
Migrations and Home Affairs (DG
Home), and Gilles Pelayo, Head of Unit
of Europe for Citizens at the Education,
Culture and Audiovisual Executive
Agency – EACEA.
After a brief introduction by
Jordi Guixé, Gilles Pelayo kicked off the
roundtable by building on Peter
Vermeersch’ speech and the notion of
morality in European policies. Pelayo,
stressed that public memory should be
understood as a right, but also as a
responsibility for European citizens.
Referencing this moral element, he
focused on its intersection with