Germany Plans New Eu-wide History Book

Europe is more likely to be agonising about its future, but now it is the past that is proving contentious. Yesterday it emerged that Germany was hoping to exploit its EU presidency to promote a new school history book for the European Union.

At a meeting in Heidelberg next week of EU education ministers, Berlin is to push for the publication of the book on the history of the EU to be used as a standard text in all 27 member countries.

While the plan is likely to prove contentious, charges that Germany is bent on whitewashing its troubled history were abruptly dismissed in Berlin yesterday. Germany has spent decades exploring its Nazi past, using its education system, the media and public debate.

"It is not the idea at all to rewrite history," said a government spokesman, Rainer Rudolph, yesterday. "There would be no suggestion of leaving out anything which might be unpleasant or difficult for the Germans, or for anyone else. That would be ridiculous."

While Chancellor Angela Merkel is said to back the idea, the common EU history book is the brainchild of Annette Schavan, the education minister. European commission officials dealing with education issues in Brussels also support the plan for the book, which would be drawn up by international experts.

But the idea would be decided by national capitals, and in some the proposal is certain to encounter scepticism, not least in Britain. Poland has repeatedly accused Germany of seeking to rewrite history because of a campaign for a museum dedicated to the fate of Germans driven out of eastern Europe at the end of the war. The Czechs would also bridle at the idea of a common history book proposed by Germany. The Dutch and the Danes may also have reservations.