Motion for a resolution | Doc. 11980 | 07 July 2009

Return of the “Elgin Marbles” to Greece

Signatories: Ms Elsa PAPADIMITRIOU, Greece, EPP/CD ; Mr Miloš ALIGRUDIĆ, Serbia, EPP/CD ; Ms Sirpa ASKO-SELJAVAARA, Finland, EPP/CD ; Ms Marie-Louise BEMELMANS-VIDEC, Netherlands, EPP/CD ; Ms Anne BRASSEUR, Luxembourg ; Mr Patrick BREEN, Ireland, EPP/CD ; Ms Ingrida CIRCENE, Latvia, EPP/CD ; Mr Mátyás EÖRSI, Hungary, ALDE ; Mr Aristophanes GEORGIOU, Cyprus ; Mr Andreas GROSS, Switzerland, SOC ; Mr Holger HAIBACH, Germany ; Mr Andres HERKEL, Estonia, EPP/CD ; Mr Serhiy HOLOVATY, Ukraine, ALDE ; Mr Mladen IVANIĆ, Bosnia and Herzegovina, EPP/CD ; Mr Željko IVANJI, Serbia, EPP/CD ; Mr Emmanouil KEFALOYIANNIS, Greece ; Ms Elvira KOVÁCS, Serbia, EPP/CD ; Mr Tiny KOX, Netherlands, UEL ; Mr Franz Eduard KÜHNEL, Austria, EPP/CD ; Mr Göran LINDBLAD, Sweden, EPP/CD ; Mr René van der LINDEN, Netherlands ; Mr Aleksei LOTMAN, Estonia, UEL ; Ms Antigoni PAPADOPOULOS, Cyprus ; Ms Zaruhi POSTANJYAN, Armenia ; Mr Christos POURGOURIDES, Cyprus, EPP/CD ; Mr Egidijus VAREIKIS, Lithuania, EPP/CD ; Mr Georgios VOULGARAKIS, Greece ; Mr Emanuelis ZINGERIS, Lithuania, EPP/CD

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

The Assembly welcomes the completion of the new state-of-the-art Akropolis Museum in Athens.

It can now certainly no longer be argued that the “Elgin Marbles”, which were removed from the Parthenon under the Ottoman occupation of Greece, should stay in London because they cannot be properly protected for posterity in Athens.

If the need to preserve archeological treasures from destruction was ever an acceptable reason to take them away from the place where they were found, this reason does certainly not apply any more to the “Elgin Marbles”.

The Assembly therefore appeals to the British authorities to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece without further delay.