This memoclip illustrates the relations between Simone Veil and the European institutions, from her election as President of the European Parliament in 1979 until the inauguration of the Simone Veil Agora in Brussels in 2011. Simone Veil was the first President of the European Parliament elected by universal suffrage, from 1979 to 1982.

Brussels

Strasbourg

plenary session

meeting

visit

vote

official visit

VEIL, Simone (LDR, FR)

BUZEK, Jerzy (EPP, PL)

BARROSO, Jose Manuel (PT, EC President)

Luxembourg

formal sitting

PRODI, Romano (IT)

Auschwitz

WEISS, Louise (DEP, FR)

Washington

CARTER, Jimmy

SADATE, Anouar El (EG, Muhammad Ahmad Anwar As-SADAT)

SPAAK, Antoinette (ELDR, BE)

DELORS, Jacques (FR)

JOHN PAUL II (PL, Pope)

VAN MIERT, Karel A.L.H. (S, BE)

Memoclip: Tribute to Simone VEIL

17/07/1979, Strasbourg, France - Election of Simone VEIL as President of the European Parliament: Members voting; Louise WEISS announcing the results; applause (7 shots).

SOUNDBITE (in FRENCH) by Simone VEIL, I would like to thank you for the proof of great of confidence that you have put in me by electing me for this eminent post.

29/01/1980, Washington D.C., United States - Visit of Simone VEIL, President of EP, to Jimmy CARTER, President of the United States (3 shots)

10/02/1981, Luxembourg - Formal sitting during the visit of Anwar EL SADAT, President of Egypt, to the EP (4 shots): SOUNDBITE (in FRENCH) by Simone VEIL, You are President Anwar EL SADAT, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, prize which you share with the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem BEGIN. (Applause) You are the statesman, whose courage and tenacity has made the unthinkable happen in a Middle East ripped apart for 30 years by the fury of arms: the opening of dialogue.

11/01/1988, Strasbourg - Visit of Pope John-Paul II at the EP; Simone VEIL between the Vice-Presidents of EP (3 shots)

03/1991, Brussels - Visit of Simone VEIL, former President of the EP, to Jacques DELORS, President of the CEC (2 shots)

27/01/1994, Poland - Visit of Simone VEIL to the Concentration Camp of Auschwitz (3 shots)

16/05/1995 - 50th anniversary of the liberation from the concentration camps. SOUNDBITE (in FRENCH) by Simone VEIL, We were haunted by the thought of coming home in order to tell. But not in a desire of vengeance, I think no-one can think that of those that had merely any voice left, but only to avoid that it would ever happen again.

29/01/2003, Brussels - Meeting of the High-Level Advisory Group on The Spiritual and Cultural Dimension of Europe: Simone Veil, Member of the French Constitutional Council and former President of the EP, and Romano Prodi, President of the EC (3 shots)

60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration camps in the presence of Simone VEIL(5 shots)

27/10/2007, Brussels - Visit of the exhibition "It's our history, 50 years of European adventure": Arrival of Jos&eacute; Manuel BARROSO, President of the EC, and handshake with Antoinette SPAAK, Belgian Minister of State, Karel VAN MIERT, former Member of the EC, and Simone VEIL, former President of the EP (5 shots)

31/08/2011, Brussels - Inauguration of the "Simone Veil Agora" and "Solidarnoność 1980 Esplanade" in front of the European Parliament (5 shots). SOUNDBITE (in FRENCH) by Simone VEIL, One can never remind enough of the peace, now so entrenched that the younger generations have a hard time to believe it has not always reigned. It has constituted a revolution in a history plagued by constant conflict, drama and blood, to which Europeans, twice this century, have not hesitated to invite the entire planet.