Following the debate which took place during the sitting of 22 October 2008, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the commemoration of the Holodomor, the Ukraine artificial famine (1932-1933).
The resolution had been tabled for consideration in plenary by the EPP-ED, PES, ALDE, UEN, and Green groups. Parliament recognised the Holodomor (the artificial famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine) as an appalling crime against the Ukrainian people, and against humanity.
It recalled that the Holodomor famine of 1932-1933, which caused the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, was cynically and cruelly planned by Stalin's regime in order to force through the Soviet Union's policy of collectivisation of agriculture against the will of the rural population in Ukraine. Parliament feels that the commemoration of crimes against humanity in European history should help to prevent the occurrence of similar crimes in the future. European integration has been based on a readiness to come to terms with the tragic history of the 20th century and a recognition that reconciliation with a difficult history does not denote any sense of collective guilt, but forms a stable basis for the construction of a common European future founded on common values and a shared and interdependent future.
Accordingly, Members make the following declaration to the people of Ukraine and in particular to the remaining survivors of the Holodomor and the families and relatives of the victims:
- Parliament recognises the Holodomor as an appalling crime against the Ukrainian people, and against humanity;
- strongly condemns these acts, directed against the Ukrainian peasantry, and marked by mass annihilation and violations of human rights and freedoms;
- expresses its sympathy with the Ukrainian people, who suffered in this tragedy, and pays its respects to those who died as a consequence of the artificial famine of 1932-1933;
- calls on the countries which emerged following the break-up of the Soviet Union to open up their archives on the Holodomor in Ukraine of 1932-1933 to comprehensive scrutiny so that all the causes and consequences can be revealed and fully investigated.