Czech Republic seeks EU institute on totalitarianism

By Guest Column —— Bio and Archives September 19, 2008

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EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Czech Republic, sitting at the EU's helm from January 2009, is to seek the establishment of a new European body that could serve as a research institute into totalitarianism and a museum of victims of totalitarian regimes.

"The institution could cover our totalitarian past from Portugal through Greece to the Baltic States," Pavel Zacek from the Prague-based Institute for Totalitarian Studies, said on Thursday (18 September). Speaking at a public hearing on the issue in the European Parliament, Mr Zacek stressed the idea was to deal with all totalitarian regimes, not just Communism. "Europe as a whole has not come to terms with its own past," he said. The goal to set up a pan-European body is part of the so-called Prague declaration on European conscience and Communism adopted by the Czech Senate in June 2008. More...