Posted on 04 May 2020
The Historical Archives of the European Union has prepared a multi-lingual exhibition to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration: “Europe and Europeans 1950>2020: 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration”.
The physical inauguration at the HAEU and in numerous hosting organisations was originally planned on May 9th, Europe Day 2020, but had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 crisis. Against this background, the HAEU developed a dedicated website to display the exhibition, which will be launched on the 9th May, to enjoy digitally anywhere in the world. Samples of the exhibition will be displayed on the HAEU social media platforms in the coming days in view of the website’s official launch.
The exhibition sets out to raise awareness of the importance of the Schuman Declaration within the history of European integration, to stimulate reflection on its relevance in today’s Europe, and to encourage debate on the history of the European Union (EU). 2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, a short but powerful statement made by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, on the 9th of May 1950. The declaration, drafted by Jean Monnet and pronounced by Schuman, initiated the process of European integration with its vision of a joint French and German coal and steel production.
Through the exhibition, the visitor takes a journey through European history via two distinct but inter-connecting paths, enriched by different QR codes, linked to various audio and video material. The first path is guided by key sentences of the Declaration. Through a selection of images and documents held in the HAEU, the visitor can experience some of the most relevant political, economic, social and cultural developments of the last 70 years of European history. The second path allows for meeting people, who were involved in or affected by the process of European integration, as a way to reflect on what it means to be European.
The exhibition has been conceived in a way that it can be downloaded from the HAEU website in different formats and languages by any institution that would like to display it, either digitally or in print. The host may choose between an exhibition to be printed on stand-alone panels or on standard A1-sized posters. In addition, the HAEU makes available a catalogue on each of the themes presented in the exhibition that may be printed in the form of A3 newspapers. Finally, a set of facsimile documents is available, conceived as samples for visitors to take back home after their visit through the exhibition. The exhibition is made available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Slovenian. For all other languages, the HAEU is ready to work in cooperation with the interested hosting organisations to translate the exhibition into relevant languages.
In addition to the HAEU itself, numerous organisations expressed interest in hosting the exhibition in their respective premises, including the network of European Documentation Centers (EDCs), EuropeDirect, the Archives of EU institutions and of EU member states’ Foreign Ministries. Its inauguration will be re-scheduled to later dates, once the HAEU and the hosts will have respectively resumed their operations. Any organization interested in hosting the exhibition may contact the HAEU at [email protected] or by phone: (+39) 055 4685 649.
Consult here the Historical Archives of the European Union’s online exhibition.
On Europe Day, on the 9th of May, the exhibition will also be inaugurated in its digital presentation on a dedicated website. From that date on, you may visualize the exhibition at the following link:
https://schuman70.eui.eu/