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News Releases
No. 06/07
January 26, 2007
STATEMENT BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION VICE PRESIDENT
FRANCO FRATTINI ON THE OCCASION OF THE
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF COMMEMORATION OF THE VICTIMS OF THE
HOLOCAUST (JANUARY 27)
"On
behalf of the European Commission, I want to join in
today's universal commemoration of the six million Jews
and all the other victims of the Holocaust.
"On 27 January 2007, sixty-two years after the
liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the
inherent abjection of the very design of the Holocaust,
together with the horrors, suffering and death it
caused, still defies human understanding. As human
beings, we remain shaken by the barbarity that took
place.
"Today, we pay tribute to the victims, we remember facts
and events. I also believe that remembrance must go
beyond the ultimate abyss of extermination camps; we
must remind ourselves of how it all became possible. We
must remember how entrenched hatred and prejudice was
spread through speech, and how it became official State
policy, law and practice. We must remember how, at the
bottom of the stairs leading down to utmost human
indignity, there were ghettoes, camps, torture, abject
experimenting with human beings, torture, death by
exhaustion and hunger, mass executions and genocide.
"In this International Day of commemoration of the
victims of the Holocaust, I also want to restate the
Commission's firm condemnation of any attempt to deny,
trivialize or minimize the Shoah, war crimes and crimes
against humanity. These views constitute an unacceptable
affront not only to the victims of that tragedy and
their descendants, but also to the whole democratic
world. The Commission welcomes educational activities
aimed at informing the current generations about the
horrors of the past.
"The Commission firmly condemns and rejects all
manifestations of anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia.
The Commission is determined to make full use of the
powers conferred by the Treaties to fight these
repugnant phenomena. This is why I very much welcome,
and fully support, the German Presidency's endeavors for
the Council to finally adopt a Framework Decision on
Combating Racism and Xenophobia.
"Freedom of expression is part of Europe’s values and
traditions, one of the fundamental, non-negotiable
pillars of our democratic systems. Simultaneously, in
our democratic societies, it is possible to fight racist
speech through penal law in full respect of the European
Convention of
Human Rights. It is in this context that
today, on the 2007 International Commemoration Day of
the victims of the Holocaust, I salute the German
Presidency's commitment to make sure that the future
Framework Decision makes the intentional denial of the
holocaust and of the other crimes against humanity,
directed against a group of persons or a member of such
a group defined by reference to race, color, religion,
descent or national or ethnic origin, a crime in all EU
Member States."
Further Contact Information
Press and Public Diplomacy
Delegation of the European Commission
2300 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
http://www.eurunion.org/PressRoom
Tel: 202-862-9552
Fax: 202-429-1766
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