Exhibition
13 June 1990: Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela visited the European Parliament in June 1990, just months after being released from prison, to receive the 1988 Sakharov Prize.
Perhaps in equal measure, as any other, this continent knows the true meaning of racism. Its peoples have both been perpetrators of racism against others and themselves been victims of an insane and murderous racist ideology. You will therefore know that this ideology and practice demeans and dehumanizes both its practitioner and its victim. It locks both into a clinging embrace of conflict and hatred. In the end and at its worst, it inevitably leads to genocide and the most horrendous crimes against humanity.
Nelson Mandela, 13 June 1990
1 December 1993: Yitzhak Rabin
Just a few months after signing the first Oslo Accord to establish a framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Parliament held a formal sitting for the visit of Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of the State of Israel.
13 December 1993: Yasser Arafat
Two weeks later, the Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation Yasser Arafat addressed the European Parliament.
8 March 1994: Václav Havel
History has thrown down a gauntlet we can, if we wish, pick up. If we do not do so, a great opportunity to create a continent of free and peaceful cooperation may be lost. Only a fool who has learned nothing from the millennia of European history can believe that tranquillity, peace and prosperity can flourish forever in one part of Europe without regard for what is happening in the other.
Václav Havel, 8 March 1994
17 January 1995: François Mitterrand
Nationalism means war! War is not only our past, it could also be our future! And it is us, it is you, ladies and gentlemen, the Members of the European Parliament, who will henceforth be the guardians of our peace, our security and our future!
François Mitterrand, 17 January 1995
19 January 1995: Jacques Delors
Outgoing President of the Commission Jacques Delors gave a farewell speech to Parliament on 19 January 1995. During his presidency, he oversaw the creation of the single market, the Maastricht Treaty, the Economic and Monetary Union, and the launch of the Erasmus programme.
Come on, be brave, the European Spring is still ahead of us!
Jacques Delors, 19 January 1995
11 July 1995: Jacques Chirac
During a visit in July 1995, Jacques Chirac, President of the French Republic, faced a demonstration by MEPs against France’s decision to resume nuclear testing at Mururoa.
20 October 1998: John Hume
Peace activist and former MEP John Hume was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts to find a peaceful solution to the long-running conflict in Northern Ireland. This achievement was honoured in a plenary session on 20 October 1998.
What we all have to learn is what the peoples of Europe have learned and we are learning in Northern Ireland: difference – whether it is race, religion or nationality – is an accident of birth and is not something we should be engaged in conflict about, it is something we should respect.
John Hume, 20 October 1998
John Hume speaks to the European Parliament