Written declaration No. 426 | Doc. 11959 | 22 June 2009

The 20th anniversary of collapse of totalitarian regimes in Europe

Signatories: Mr Dariusz LIPIŃSKI, Poland, EPP/CD ; Mr Pedro AGRAMUNT, Spain, EPP/CD ; Mr Titus CORLĂŢEAN, Romania, SOC ; Ms Lena DĄBKOWSKA-CICHOCKA, Poland ; Mr Nigel EVANS, United Kingdom ; Mr Per-Kristian FOSS, Norway ; Mr György FRUNDA, Romania, EPP/CD ; Mr Andrzej GRZYB, Poland ; Mr Tadeusz IWIŃSKI, Poland, SOC ; Ms Danuta JAZŁOWIECKA, Poland ; Mr Włodzimierz KARPIŃSKI, Poland, EPP/CD ; Mr Jan KAŹMIERCZAK, Poland, EPP/CD ; Ms Birgen KELEŞ, Turkey, SOC ; Mr Albrecht KONEČNÝ, Austria, SOC ; Mr Göran LINDBLAD, Sweden, EPP/CD ; Mr João Bosco MOTA AMARAL, Portugal, EPP/CD ; Ms Miroslava NĚMCOVÁ, Czech Republic ; Ms Mirosława NYKIEL, Poland, EPP/CD ; Mr Hryhoriy OMELCHENKO, Ukraine ; Mr Gabino PUCHE, Spain, EPP/CD ; Mr Ingo SCHMITT, Germany ; Mr Michał STULIGROSZ, Poland, EPP/CD ; Mr Mehmet TEKELİOĞLU, Turkey, EPP/CD ; Mr Luigi VITALI, Italy, EPP/CD

This written declaration commits only those who have signed it.

1. This year brings the 20th anniversary of the Autumn of Nations that has brought the subversion of the totalitarian regime to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and has restored democracy and freedom of speech.

2. The democratic transformations of 1989 stemmed from a number of earlier social uprisings enhancement of dissident movements, such as Solidarity (Solidarność), and the attempts of implementation of first reforms in communistic countries, including the perestroika and glasnost in the Soviet Union.

3. A definite milestone on the path to democracy was the success of the Solidarity-based opposition in the first, after the Second World War, partly free parliamentary elections in Poland on 4 June 1989. The scale of the Solidarity success in these elections led to the formation of the first after World War II in this part of Europe non-communistic government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki in August 1989.

4. This event has incited a series of historical transformations in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe: in Hungary, in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (the so-called Baltic Chain, on 23August 1989), in German Democratic Republic (the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989), Czechoslovakia (the Velvet Revolution in November 1989), in Bulgaria, Romania and Albania.

5. The Autumn of Nations has finally destroyed the political order imposed on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe by the terms of the Yalta agreement.

6. The undersigned call on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the national parliaments to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the events which have resulted in the collapse of totalitarian regimes throughout Europe.