Report: Taking Stock of European Memory Policies Report: EUROM Meeting 2018 | Page 8

Roundtable 2
Members of the European Parliament
Transnational group of Historical
Memory
The second roundtable brought
together the Members the European
Parliament Ana Maria Gomes (APSD),
Ana Miranda Paz (Greens/EFA), and
Jordi Solé (Greens/EFA). They represent
the informal Transnational Group of
Historic Memory within the Parliament,
currently formed by Spanish and
Portuguese members, and mainly
focused on the historical memory
related to Franco. Jordi Solé introduced
the Transnational Group of Historical
Memory, noted their quite informal
structure, and pointed to their wish to
enlarge. He also stressed the need to
focus on reconciliation as an ongoing
process. At the same time however, Solé
made clear the necessity of focusing on
the historical memories dealing with
Franco in particular, because these
lacked clear spokespersons on a
European level. In regards to the new
Multiannual Financial Framework of the
period 2021-2027, he asserted the
authority of the European Parliament to
oppose, critique, and augment it.
Ana Maria Gomes (Portugal)
highlighted the need to revive certain
memories, giving the importance of the
25th April 1974 for Portugal, the date of
the Carnation Revolution/Coup, as an
example. She further pointed to the
troubling lack of remembrance,
especially in Madrid, where buildings
that were instrumentalized under the
Franco regime, did not even receive
plaques
commenting
on
and
contextualizing their history. Similarly,
Gomes discussed how the former secret
police headquarters of the PIDE in
Lisbon, where under the Salazar
dictatorship political prisoners were
held and tortured, had been renovated
and turned into a luxury apartment
complex.
On a more optimistic note, she
referenced both the Peniche Fortress,
which an initiative by civil society, had
successfully turned the into a museum,
and the recently opened Museu do
Aljube in the former prison of Aljube.
Gomes hinted at the influence their
Transnational Group was able to exert,
and generally the influence European
recognition and presence can have in
such instances. This raises the question
what memories should be dealt with on
a European level, and to what extent
increased European recognition of
these memories might better equip
local practitioners in getting these
memories recognized. She further
stated that she saw the role of justice as
the main determining factor in the
preservation, or lack of preservation, of
memories in Justice, referencing the
large discrepancies between how a
country like Spain and a country like
Germany have dealt with their past.
Ana Miranda Paz (Spain)
subsequently focused on the case of the
highly controversial Francisco Franco
Foundation, a foundation which until