European Parliament Strasbourg, 8 May 2025
On the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat and the end of World War II 80 years ago, a group of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), have used this opportunity to stress the urgency of ending the war in Ukraine diplomatically and thus restoring peace in Europe. On this anniversary, which is commemorated in Western Europe on May 8, we have issued a joint appeal to all our parliamentary colleagues to work for peace now.
Today, we remember the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War 80 years
ago. We remember the estimated 60 million dead, 27 million of which in the Soviet Union alone,
and the unspeakable human suffering that this war caused.
As we stand here, war has returned to Europe again with the brutal Ukraine war in its fourth year.
That is why we want to use this anniversary to impress on our parliamentary colleagues the need to
leave all the talk about continuing this war behind us and begin to pursue the road to peace. We
have failed peace before, we must not fail it again.
The Ukraine war could probably have been prevented if the EU’s leaders and the European
Parliament had pressed for negotiations over Russia’s security concerns regarding NATO
expansion. And had the EU supported the Ukraine-Russian peace negotiations that led to the
Istanbul communique a month after the outbreak of war, it could most likely have ended early.
Sadly, in both cases this Parliament remained silent.
While the United States has now made a peace proposal to end the Ukraine war, the majority in this
Parliament continues to reject peace though negotiations and instead supports continuing the war.
Continuing this war against a nuclear superpower risks spreading the war to other European
countries thereby causing a firestorm that could encompass all of Europe and lead to ultimate
destruction. More war will only lead to more bloodshed and further destruction in Ukraine. We are
therefore convinced that the only chance for Ukraine is a negotiated peace settlement.
Many parliamentarians have signed the book of condolences for Pope Francis, and we hope they
will also have read his Easter message, delivered a day before his death. It is a message of peace
that is contrary to all of what the parliamentary majority stands for.
We therefore call on our co-parliamentarians to follow the Pope’s message of peace, and help “to
renew our hope that peace is possible”.
Let us work together in making the European Union into a European Peace Project
Michael von der Schulenburg MEP (Germany)
Ruth Firmenich MEP (Germany)
Ondřej Dostál MEP (Czechia)
Ľuboš Blaha MEP (Slovakia)
Fidias Panayiotou MEP (Cyprus)
Elena Yoncheva MEP (Bulgaria)
Danilo delle Valle MEP (Italy)
Martin Sonneborn MEP (Germany)
Erik Kaliňák MEP (Slovakia)
Fabio de Masi MEP (Germany)
Jan-Peter Warnke MEP (Germany)
Branislav Ondruš MEP (Slovakia)
Thomas Geisel MEP (Germany)
Maria Zacharia MEP (Greece)
Katarína Roth Neveďalová MEP (Slovakia)
Michael McNamara MEP (Ireland)
Video of the appeal: https://youtu.be/D-wWsQBqkzg