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28th Mar 2024

MEPs call for EU stance on communist crimes

Several members of the European Parliament have called on the EU to formally recognise crimes committed by Stalinist regimes and compensation for its victims on the same terms as victims of the Nazis.

On the first evening of the week's Strasbourg plenary on Monday (21 April), MEPs held a hearing on "crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by totalitarian regimes", organised in response to a request by EU justice ministers.

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In April last year, EU justice ministers agreed to make incitement to racism and xenophobia a crime across the 27-nation bloc.

The EU's new hate-laws also make it a criminal offence for people "publicly condoning, denying, or grossly trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes" but only those recognised under the statue of the International Criminal Court.

At the time, there was no inclusion of acts that condone or celebrate crimes committed under Stalinist regimes, despite the feeling by Poland and some other former Communist countries that such subjects fell within the same rubric.

However, Monday's discussion showed that the issue still raises strong feelings among several MEPs.

Polish centre-right MEP Wojciech Roszkowski said it is disappointing that the EU is not capable of any common declaration in recognition of the crimes of Stalinism.

"It's not only a matter for individual member states," he said.

British Conservative MEP Christopher Beazley supported his Polish colleague, arguing: "The history of central and eastern Europe is also our history and our problem because the French and the Brits were Stalin's allies."

Jacques Barrot, European commission vice-president, admitted that there is a widespread feeling in central and eastern Europe that there is a lack of "proper understanding for the tragic history of the new member states" in western Europe.

But he stressed that different countries tackle reconciliation and the recognition of the victims of historic crimes in different ways, as there is "no unique model" for all EU member states to adopt.

"The European Union cannot substitute a national process" in every country, the commissioner added, pointing out that the bloc's institutions have no competency covering additional actions on this issue, other than to encourage debate.

Still, Brussels is planning to issue a special report that will analyse the current situation on such hate speech in member states, as well as possible ways on how to use EU funds for activities aimed at reconciliation relating to crimes committed by both the Nazi and Stalinist regimes.

"The commission has to present the report to the council [representing member states] two years after the decision regarding racism and xenophobia comes into force, and perhaps then a political debate may take place," said Mr Barrot.

Meanwhile, the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL) grouping in the parliament is steadfastly opposed to equating the crimes of Nazism with those of Stalinism. The GUE-NGL brings together MEPs from left-wing parties, including some who while not supporting Stalinism still call themselves communists.

"It is unacceptable, not only for our group in particular, but by all those who paid a personal price in the fight against the worst genocide in contemporary history ... to surreptitiously make Nazism banal by putting it in the same category as Stalinism," said Francis Wurtz, the head of the GUE-NGL, who also suggested that the crimes of colonialism "not be forgotten."

The secretary-general of the Central Council of the Jews of Germany, Stephan Kramer, for his part, disagreed with drawing a comparison between the former East German regime and that of the Nazis: "Any attempt to make a parallel is an astounding relativisation of the deprivation of rights of the deportation and mass extermination of millions of men, women and innocent children during the Nazi dictatorship."

According to Poland's PAP news agency, Polish justice minister Zbigniew Cwiakalski told his counterparts at last week's meeting in Luxembourg that he hopes for a revision of the EU's 2007 decision on the racism and xenophobia so that the recognition of Stalinist crimes can be included.

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