Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

on each other. The only way of changing this is to introduce these
separate and sometimes contradictory accounts into a shared,
common education. The gulag should be as well known as the
Nazis’ extermination camps; the crimes of the Third Reich should
not be allowed to obscure the crimes of the Soviet Union. In the
account of how European unity was shaped, room should be found
for a Lech Wałęsa or a Václav Havel alongside Jean Monnet and
Altiero Spinelli. This could be achieved by basing the teaching of
European history around its common framework, the European
mindset. We have history books prepared by both neighbours and
enemies, to ensure education also participates in the work of
reconciliation, but we do not yet have history books presenting
European civilisation, which could provide a level of knowledge
common to all EU citizens.
This educational work should not be confined to schools. It could
easily find its way into the media, into films, into the creation of historic
monuments in European cities and into the promotion of
games about history. The British historian Timothy Garton Ash has,
admirably, set up a communication network on European history on
the Internet. We need hundreds of initiatives like this, stepping out
of the frame and collecting up the entire European memory.
In order that the European identity is not seen as a search for closure
in on itself, for separation or for the exclusion of others, we
need to feed it from history and seek to understand why the
European people want to live together, by bringing the different
histories together and by creating a ‘European narrative’.
The second area, European citizenship, is obviously of crucial importance
for forging a sense of belonging to a political community.
An enormous amount of work has already been done in this area.
The Schengen system, the abolition of borders and customs, the
Erasmus scholarships, the announcement of the setting up of joint
EU consulates and missions in third countries, the harmonisation of
passports and identity cards – there is already a long list of new attributes
of European citizens. The common agricultural policy, so
often the subject of criticism, also has its place here, since handouts
from Brussels persuade farmers that European citizenship
brings them concrete benefits. It is in this way, by experiencing
solidarity in practice, that the European mindset forms.
41 Bronisław Geremek