On 14 October 2011 in Prague, in the presence of Petr Nečas, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland and Victor Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister the Platform of European Memory and Conscience was founded. The Institute of National Remembrance and the Warsaw Rising Museum are the Polish members of the Platform. The agreement was signed by dr. Łukasz Kamiński, the President of the IPN and dr. Paweł Ukielski, Deputy Director of the Museum. Göran Lindblad has been appointed as the President of the Platform and Neela Winkelmannová of the Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes became the Executive Director. At the request of the IPN dr. Paweł Ukielski joined the Platform’s Board.

The Platform brings together 21 state and social institutions from 13 European Union countries. Its objectives include disseminating knowledge about the totalitarian regimes and commemorating the victims. The constitution of the Platform has been preceded by several years of preparation, which have been initiated with the Prague Declaration of 2008. Its last stage was the Warsaw Declaration signed on 23 August 2011 during the European Remembrance Day for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes co-organised by the Institute of National Remembrance.

Andrzej Arseniuk
Spokesperson