My small personal contribution to the Demolition of the Berlin Wall.

Not long after being elected as an MEP, I was fortunate to visit Berlin with some colleagues from the European Parliament following the opening of the border between the former German Democratic Republic and West Germany.

It was an exciting time to visit the city at such an important and momentous historical juncture not only for Germany but for the whole continent of Europe. Within eleven months German reunification would have taken place, the Soviet Empire collapsed and many of its satellite states would have shaken off the chains of communist dictatorial rule and began the transition towards democracy, embracing the EU Acquis Communitaire and preparing for full EU Membership. By the time I left the European Parliament in 2004, ten of these countries would join the EU as fully fledged members (although it has to be acknowledged that today several of them are not behaving as if they genuinely share our European values and our respect for full democracy and human rights and their failure to discharge their obligations needs to be challenged).

In this thirty year old photograph, I expressed my solidarity with the people of Germany and joined those who demolished the wall and consigned all that it represented to the dustbin of history. I still retain the fragments of the wall that I chiseled off in the photo and keep them as a reminder why we must always remain vigilant against opponents of our democratic values.