Brussels, 27/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - In a declaration on Tuesday by the president of the European Commission Romano Prodi explained that 27 January, the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945, would be the "day on which we commemorate the Holocaust, the persecution and extermination of the Jewish people". He noted that remembering the holocaust "has a universal value" and that humanity continued to "stain itself with the crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism". The commemoration of the holocaust had particular meaning for Europe as "out of the lesson of the holocaust the new Europe was born, pointed out Mr Prodi who concluded, "Taking up what was said in the declaration of the Stockholm Holocaust Forum in January 2000, and the statement by the European ministers of education in October 2002, I would like to added my support for the proposal that a European Day of Remembrance be set aside in each country to be chosen in the light of its own history, in order to remember the victims of the holocaust and the struggle against all crimes against humanity, and to pay homage to all those who, sometimes at the risk of their own lives have opposed and continue to oppose such horrendous deeds".
On 28 January the CFSP High Representative Javier Solana will intervene at the closing of the conference on "Preventing Genocide: Threats and Responsibilities" organised by the Stockholm International Forum. Around sixty governments were represented in Stockholm where the conference opened on Monday (website: http: //http://www.preventinggenocide.com ). In Strasbourg where the doors of a synagogue were damaged last week, the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe observed a moment of silence in memory of the holocaust.