‘Bravery’ of John Hume in taking European peace template and applying it in Good Friday Agreement hailed

The contribution of the late former SDLP leader was recognised during a session to mark the 25th anniversary of the accord at the Espace Léopold in Brussesl.

Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, said: “Dear Europeans, the European peace project was borne from the ashes of World Wars.

"It held the ambition of bringing peoples together in the hope of lasting peace and prosperity. Nobel Peace Prize laureate John Hume said in this House...‘What we all have to learn is what the peoples of Europe learned. Difference is not something we should be engaged in conflict about. It is something we should respect.’

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said: “Today, we celebrate brave leaders, like John Hume and David Trimble, who came from opposing sides and ended up sharing a Nobel Peace Prize. But we also celebrate all the peace-loving people of Ireland and NI – the unsung heroes of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement.

“The Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement not only ended 30 years of the Troubles, it also opened a new era of cooperation. As the first line of the agreement says, it is ‘the opportunity for a new beginning’ for the two communities and the two islands, and it was indeed a new beginning.”

Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews said: “It was the EU that provided the symbolism of peace-building. As the 1952 Coal and Steel Treaty aimed at ‘building a broader and deeper community among peoples long divided by bloody conflict’, SDLP MEP and Nobel Prize-winner, John Hume, used this language as a framework to ensure that the EU would play a role – much to the irritation of the UK Government.”

Mr. Andrews, whose father David was Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time of the GFA, said: “In May 2007, Ian Paisley, a former MEP, contacted the Irish Government to request that José Manuel Barroso [former EC President] would come to Belfast to be in attendance at Paisley’s first official meeting with Martin McGuinness.

"The presence of the EU was visually important to what otherwise would have been an awkward moment for Paisley.”

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