Jacques Delors, guest of Solemn session of the European Parliament on 20th anniversary of German reunification
Our news
| 06/10/2010
On Thursday 7 October at 12 noon, the European Parliament holds a formal sitting to mark the 20th anniversary of German reunification, which took place on 3 October 1990. Guest speakers Lothar de Maizière, the only ever democratically elected Prime Minister of East Germany, and Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission, will be introduced by Parliament's President Jerzy Buzek.
The Solemn session is diffused in live on europarl.tv : http://www.europarltv.europa.eu
Abstracts of the Speech by Jacques Delors
Mr. President of the European Parliament,
Mr. Lothar de Maizière,
Mr. President of the European Council,
Mr. President of the European Commission,
Excellencies,
Members of the European Parliament,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Barely a year elapsed between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. Throughout 1989, European peoples took to the streets. In Poland, the events that had begun with the strikes in Gdansk in the summer of 1980 led to the Belvedere Agreements between February and April 1989, followed by the first free elections on 4 June 1989. In Czechoslovakia demonstrations were held to commemorate Jan Palach’s sacrifice by fire; in Hungary, to mark the solemn funeral of Imre Nagy, at last rehabilitated; in Bulgaria, to force President Živkov to step down and of course in East Germany, where people in increasing numbers took part in peaceful demonstrations.
The peoples’ demands were gaining strength, and on May 2, 1989, the opening of the border between Hungary and Austria enabled East Germans to cross over to the West.
This was a moment in time when History accelerated, and we must admit it took us all by surprise. Some of us knew intuitively that there were growing imbalances in the Communist countries, but no one could have known that the lid would blow off so fast...
This speech is also available in
French and
German Version.
Articles by
Jacques Delors :
