John HUME makes a statement during the plenary session in Strasbourg after the announcement by the Nobel Committee that he will receive the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize. During Easter in 1998, the biggest political parties in Northern Ireland signed a peace agreement, which later became know as the Good Friday agreement. In the autumn of 1998, the Nobel Committee decided to award the Peace Prize to John HUME, who is one of the architects of the peace process in the civil war-torn province.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

peace process in Northern Ireland (T)

HUME, John (PSE, UK)

Statement by John HUME (PES, UK) nominated for the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize

SOUNDBITE (English), John HUME, Mr President, I am clearly very moved by today, and I thank you all for the warmth of your support. Obviously, I was very honoured to achieve this award, but I see it not just as a personal award. I wish to express my deep appreciation to the members of my own group here and to the members of other groups who nominated me for this award.

SOUNDBITE (English), John HUME, As I have said, I do not see it just as a personal award: I see it as a very powerful expression of the international  goodwill  and  support  for  peace  on  our streets. I have no doubt that it is strengthening the will of our people to continue in the enormous task of ending a quarrel of centuries and bringing lasting peace to our people.

SOUNDBITE (English), John HUME, Throughout that peace process I was very grateful for the enormous support that the process has received from this House and the institutions of the European Union and, in particular,  the programme  for peace  and reconciliation which  was  unanimously  endorsed  by  this  House  and which is doing so much work at grassroots-level. It is so positive that it deserves to be studied now by other regions of Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), John HUME, But, most important of all, I have to say that, as far as I am concerned, the peace process in Northern Ireland has been most  heavily  inspired  by  the  inspiration  of  this  House.

SOUNDBITE (English), John HUME, When I first came here in 1979 - I tell this story often - I went  for a walk across  the bridge  from  Strasbourg  to Kehl. I stopped and I thought: 30 years ago if I had stood on this bridge and said: 'Don't  worry, although there are 25 million dead for the second time in a century and for centuries these peoples of Europe have slaughtered one another, now it is all over and in 30 years they will all be together' I might have been sent to see a psychiatrist. But it happened. Let us not forget that European Union is the best example, as we have learned, in the history of the world of conflict resolution.

SOUNDBITE (English), John HUME, The philosophy that created European Union and the peace of Europe is a philosophy - if you study it - that is at the heart of our agreement: respect for difference and for diversity, the creation of institutions which respect that diversity but which allow all sections to work to&shy;gether in their common interests and economics - spill their sweat, not their blood. And by doing that begin the real healing process of breaking down the barriers of centuries begins and a new society evolves.

SOUNDBITE (English), John HUME, That is the philosophy of European Union and it is the philosophy of real peace and, might I add, that is the philosophy that we should be sending to areas of conflict in the world. We should not be sending armies, we should be sending a philosophy. The philosophy we have in this building is a philosophy that will resolve conflict everywhere because, at the end of the day, all conflict is about the same thing: it is about seeing difference as a threat.

SOUNDBITE (English), John HUME, What we all have to learn is what the peoples of Europe have learned and we are learning in Northern Ireland: difference - whether it is race, religion or nationality - is an accident of birth and is not some&shy; thing we should be engaged in conflict about, it is some&shy; thing we should respect. Thank you very much for your support today.