Brussels, 23/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Commission made a further appeal for calm to protagonists involved in the current debate on the Benes Decrees to avoid endangering the continuation of the process for the Czech Republic's EU membership. "I hope the success of the Czech Republic over the last months and years will not be brought into question by discussions on the problems of the past", said Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen, after a meeting with Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman. We appreciate the position of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs on the Benes Decrees (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.2), and the joint declaration recently approved in Prague by myself and Prime Minister Zeman remains entirely valid, said Mr Verheugen. "We must work for the future and not turn to the past", stressed Commission President Romano Prodi. "The European Union has been successful because we have not looked backwards, because it was founded on a sense of pardon", said Mr Prodi, recalling the experience of Germany and France after the Second World War. Mr Zeman, for his part, affirmed that the current Czech legislation does not contain discriminatory elements resulting from the Benes Decrees.