Skip to content
DRAFT REPORT (2023/2112(INI))

On European historical consciousness

CULT-PR-752701

Committee on Culture and Education · Rapporteur: Niyazi Kizilyürek

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull text
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 28 Sept 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

This is a draft report by the Committee on Culture and Education on European historical consciousness. It argues that Europe's difficult past is both a risk and an opportunity, calls for honest assessment of EU memory politics, and asks member states to revise history curricula and teacher training. It calls on the Commission and member states to strengthen Erasmus+ and the CERV programme, and asks European institutions, member states, educational institutions and civil-society actors to reject instrumentalising history and fight historical denialism. It envisions a bottom-up 'culture of remembering' based on shared European values, with national memories complementing each other and merging into a European public sphere.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes that Parliament acknowledge Europe's difficult past as both risk and opportunity, critically assess EU memory politics, and call for a broader, bottom-up historical consciousness supported by education, teacher training and EU programmes.

Key points

  1. Acknowledges that dealing with history at supranational level is difficult and potentially dangerous, and that regulating commemoration and interpretation is always challenging.
  2. Considers dark elements of Europe's history — totalitarianism, racism, jingoism and colonialism — a reminder of past mistakes and a call to work towards democratic and inclusive societies.
  3. Considers responsible, evidence-based and critical dealing with history a sine qua non for any democratic body politic.
  4. Stresses the need for an honest assessment of the EU's 'politics of the past', acknowledging both achievements and shortcomings.
  5. Acknowledges past and present European initiatives for a common historical memory, including Holocaust Remembrance Day, the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of all Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, and a remembrance strand in the CERV programme.
  6. Expresses concern about latent competition and partial incompatibility between different memory frames and remembrance cultures, especially between Western and Eastern Europe.
  7. Recognises that narrating a story about itself ex negativo, with National Socialism and Stalinism as a 'negative foundation myth', risks a teleological and simplistic black-and-white scheme of history.
  8. Recognises the need for a broader and more holistic understanding of European history, in particular by widening the focus of current European remembrance initiatives.
  9. Stresses moving from a top-down 'remembrance culture' towards a bottom-up, citizens-driven 'culture of remembering' based on common European principles and values.
  10. Calls on member states to revise curricula and teaching methodologies to shift focus from national towards European and global history, allowing multiple interpretations and favouring reflection over knowledge transfer.
  11. Calls on member states to provide tailor-made history teacher training on transnational aspects of history and modern teaching principles.
  12. Calls on the Commission and member states to strengthen Erasmus+ and the CERV programme, and requests that European institutions, member states, educational institutions and civil-society actors reject instrumentalising history and fight historical denialism.

Who is affected

  • Member states: asked to revise history curricula and teaching methodologies and to provide tailor-made teacher training.
  • The Commission: asked to strengthen Erasmus+ and the CERV programme for historical consciousness.
  • European institutions, member states, educational institutions and civil-society actors: asked to reject instrumentalising history and fight historical denialism.
  • Teachers and students: affected by calls for new teaching styles favouring reflection and discussion over knowledge transfer.

Legal basis: Article 165 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union