Amid doubt on EU's future, some seek common past
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-06 20:51

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

This part of the historical narrative is more controversial, since the scenario minimizes the historical fractures wrought by the French Revolution, Napoleon's wars of conquest, and the colonial rivalries and conflicts among the European powers.

The museum will depict the 19th century wars of national unification as a common stage in European development rather than just a forging of national identity in the blood of fellow Europeans.

The most politicized part is post-war unification, which the organizers acknowledge is intended to showcase the achievements of European integration and highlight the lesson of history that a "happy end" cannot be taken for granted.

French and Dutch voters have just underlined that point, but Spaak is not yet ready to consign the constitution agreed by EU leaders in 2004 to history. Nor is she willing to give Euroskepticism a corner in the museum.

"Anti-Europeans get so much space in the media. It's too much to ask that they should get a room in my museum," she said.

Housed in a new wing of the European Parliament now under construction, the museum will feature a permanent exhibit without any expensive collection of paintings or artifacts, and temporary exhibitions on different historical themes.

The scientific committee, headed by Polish historian Krzysztof Pomian, is an international who's who of eminent historians and museum directors who have worked on similar projects in Germany, France, Denmark and Israel.

Without art treasures, the organizers aim to tell the story of Europe through a mixture of high technology -- a map room and a Union history timetable like an airport departure board -- and giving visitors a sense of being actors in European history, for example in an interactive conference room.

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