Jan Jerzy Kułakowski (ALDE).  – (PL) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 60 years after the end of the Second World War, Europe’s future depends to a great extent on whether two basic conditions are met. The first of these is that the history of the events that occurred during the Second World War be generally acknowledged, and the second is that a common vision of European integration be brought about on the basis of this history.

The way in which people remember history can differ according to whether or not the end of the war amounted to genuine liberation for them. Poles remember a number of key dates that sealed the fate of the Second World War as a tragic event. The first of these is 1 September 1939, when Hitler attacked Poland. This date marked the beginning of a nightmarish time of occupation, repression and concentration camps, when the occupying forces did their best to annihilate the Polish nation and people. It was, however, also a time of heroic deeds by the underground state and society. Another date Poles remember is 17 September 1939. Although this date unfortunately has less resonance in Western Europe, we find it both distressing and highly significant, as it is the date when the Soviet Union attacked Poland. This attack took place following the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Hitler and Stalin, which provided for another partition of Poland. Other dates include 1943, when the crimes committed in Katyn in 1940 were uncovered, or in other words the slaughter of tens of thousands of Polish officers and officials on Stalin’s orders, merely because they served the Polish state, and 1943 and 1944, when two heroic uprisings took place. The first of these was Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which ended in bloody defeat, or rather extermination, and the second was the Warsaw Uprising, which Soviet troops watched from the right bank of the Vistula without taking any action. The final date that Poles remember is 1945, as this is when the Yalta Conference took place. The latter led to the creation of the Iron Curtain, which divided Europe for 44 years, cutting off my country, Poland, from European democracy and integration. That is all I wish to say about how we remember history.

Turning to the matter of a common vision of European integration, I should like to highlight a fundamental point. What we remember are the crimes that were committed by systems, and the victims these systems claimed. These memories should not and must not under any circumstances divide nations and peoples. This is the message behind Solidarity, the Polish social movement which triggered the liberation of Eastern Europe and which is also celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. This movement was the driving force behind the resumption of relations between the two parts of Europe that had been divided by the decisions made in Yalta. Taking my cue from it, I should like to state quite categorically that solidarity must be the guiding principle of our common future.

I should like to finish by calling upon all Members to vote in favour of this resolution.