European Parliament public history initiatives and the memory of European unity: some reflections and a blueprint for action

  • Martí Grau i Segú Jean Monnet House
Keywords: Memory, European Unity, European Parliament, Jean Monnet, Memoria, Unidad europea, Parlamento europeo

Abstract

While memory of war and its ensuing traumas is well established in Europe, memory of unity and transnational solidarity is harder to coalesce. Among the European institutions, the European Parliament has been playing a prominent role in putting forward initiatives to stir public conversation on Europe’s past. Those initiatives are intent on addressing the barriers that prevent the consolidation of a memory of European unity. The development of the Jean Monnet House activities, one of the newest European Parliament visitor facilities, is an opportunity to convey those principles to the public through a hands-on experience.

Si bien la memoria sobre la guerra - y sobre los traumas que esta trae consigo - está bien establecida en Europa, la memoria sobre la unidad y sobre la solidaridad por encima de las fronteras es de más difícil crista-lización. Entre las instituciones europeas, el Parlamento Europeo juega un papel principal en la creación de iniciativas para favorecer el debate público sobre el pasado de Europa. Dichas iniciativas inciden sobre las barreras que dificultan la consolidacion de una memoria de la unidad europea. El desarrollo del programa de actividades de la Casa Jean Monnet, uno de los servicios para visitantes de más reciente creación en el Parlamento Europeo, es una oportunidad para acercar el público a aquellos princi-pios a través de una experiencia práctica.

Author Biography

Martí Grau i Segú, Jean Monnet House

Martí Grau is Head of Service and Curator at the Jean Monnet House, European Parliament. He pursued graduate studies at SAIS-Bologna and holds a History PhD from the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. Having started his career in Ancient History and as director of archaeological excavations, he then turned his research focus to the role of History in contemporary political discourse. He has been Visiting Professor at Indiana University, and he has also taught at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin. He was member of the House of European History academic team from the inception of the project in 2011 until one year after its inauguration, when he moved to France to take up his current duties. He served as Member of the European Parliament in 2008-2009.

Published
2020-12-31
Section
Special Issue