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New history book planned for EU

Ian Traynor

EUROPE IS more likely to be agonising about its future, but now it is the past that is proving contentious.

On Thursday, 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 states.

While the plan is likely to prove contentious, charges that Germany is bent on whitewashing its troubled history were abruptly dismissed in Berlin on Thursday. 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," government spokesman Rainer Rudolph said. "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 Education Minister Annette Schavan.

The idea will be decided by national capitals, and in some the proposal is certain to encounter scepticism, not least in London. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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