European Peace Project

Dear friends of peace

Many thanks to all of you who took part in the European Peace Project! You brought our idea of proclaiming peace on 9.5.25 at 17.00 with our manifesto to life in an artistic speech act so phenomenally and made it bigger than we could have imagined. From the registrations alone, we are over 16,000 people across the continent who have all spoken out individually or in groups in public places for peace in Europe through dialog and international understanding as well as the elimination of the causes of conflict through the reconciliation of interests. Added to this are the countless people who spontaneously joined the actions that took place on May 9. Our actions met with a positive response everywhere and sent a wave of peace across this continent. The energy that has been generated has been great and we do not want to and must not let it simply fizzle out again. We get a lot of questions about how things should and must continue. For us, the European Peace Project is not over. First of all, we will now collect, curate and document all of your wonderful actions – as promised in a gallery on the website and we have also found someone who will create a documentary film from all of the video contributions. We hope to have both the film and the gallery ready by July 15th. If you haven’t already done so, please send us your photos and/or videos of your action on 9.5.12 to https://europeanpeaceproject.eu/upload/

Next week, the auction of the originals of the works created for the European Peace Project by artist Regina Bender will start on our website – so be sure to take a look and secure a unique and one-of-a-kind testimony of our historic action on May 9, 2025.

Furthermore, we would like to give you some ideas on how you can remain/become active, because you are the actors of the European Peace Project.

1. there were many requests to repeat the manifesto readings, actions, peace walks – do it! If you have organized an action once, you can do it again and you will certainly continue to support like-minded people who stand up for a peaceful future on this continent with a sincere heart. We suggest, like this May, to always use the 2nd Friday of the month to come together at 17.00 on the market square/central square of your town/city to read out the manifesto again, to sing, to set a sign with performance and art that we stand up against the criminal war policy of most EU governments for the promise of the future-oriented transcendence of the most cruel experience of violence of the world wars, which succeeded with the Charter of the United Nations.

2. in order to find each other even without online access, in large and small places, and to make our commitment to peace visible, we once again suggest permanently hanging peace flags from your windows, balconies, etc. to hang peace flags from your windows, balconies etc.

3. people’s diplomacy or delegations to Kiev and Moscow: We cannot wait in vain for a government initiative for a youth organization, they prefer to stir up enemy images. So we have to take matters into our own hands. This is difficult to do privately, but networking with like-minded people helps.
The best way to do this is to look for existing German/Russian town twinning associations.

In fact, in connection with our European Peace Project, there was a small delegation of MEPs to Moscow led by Michael von der Schulenburg, former high-ranking diplomat and Assistant Secretary of the UN, from the 1980s until the 2010s in numerous conflict and war zones, from Haiti to Iran-Iraq to Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, also involved in the negotiations in March 2022 between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul, now in the European Parliament: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-wWsQBqkzg

“On the occasion of this anniversary, which is celebrated in Western Europe on May 8, we have made a joint appeal to all our parliamentary colleagues to stand up for peace now.” This is a fantastic demonstration of how parliamentarians, hand in hand with the majority of the European population, responsibly stand up for the original promises of European integration of freedom from war, poverty and hardship and freedom of expression on this historic day – many thanks to Michael for this!!!

The German government has, shamefully, excluded Russians from the 80th anniversary celebrations of the end of the Second World War. MEPs such as Michael von der Schulenburg, Fidss Panayiotou (Cyprus) and Ondrej Dostal (Czech Republic) have therefore traveled to Moscow and laid flowers for the “unknown soldier”. Afterwards, the MPs want to travel to Kiev. “The bloodshed must come to an end!” Michael von der Schulenburg gave the following speech on Red Square on May 9 in cooperation with our European Peace Project:
Today, with a small group of Members of the European Parliament, we visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Red Square in Moscow to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. This visit should be particularly significant for Germany, because the soldier buried here died in the war against Nazi Germany. So he also reminds us Germans of the need for peace.

The soldier is a silent witness to the monstrous blood toll that Russia paid in the war against a criminal Nazi Germany. Almost one in two of the 60 million dead in this war was a Soviet citizen, the vast majority were Russians.

And so it fills us with shame that in Germany of all places, the country that was responsible for so many atrocities in the Second World War, Russians were excluded from commemorations of the dead of the Second World War. On this day, which is so memorable for German-Russian relations, we should have thought together about why, despite the bitter experiences of the past, Germany and Russia are once again at war with each other.

Because this war could have been prevented if we had been prepared to negotiate with Russia about NATO expansion. But where was Germany? And why didn’t Germany support the Ukrainian-Russian peace negotiations in March 2022? The Istanbul Communiqué was a brilliant feat of Ukrainian diplomacy, and Russia had accepted these Ukrainian peace proposals. So the war could have ended after just one month. How many victims, how much suffering, how much destruction would have been spared, especially for the Ukrainians.

Today, the new German government is actively undermining the American president’s peace efforts. When the now designated German Foreign Minister declares that “Russia will always be our enemy” and regrets that the Taurus cruise missiles could not be used to attack Moscow before May, one feels transported back to the time of the Second World War. This German attitude will certainly not bring us any closer to peace.

These politicians who advocate a continuation of the war should never forget that it is not their blood or the blood of their children that is being shed here, but the blood of Ukrainians and Russians. Hate is a bad advisor, you can’t win wars with self-righteousness and ultimately you can’t win peace with weapons.

If Germany wants to contribute to peace, it must completely change its foreign and security policy. Respect, listening to and understanding an opponent are the magic words here, not a Taurus missile! Further bloodshed, the increasing destruction of Ukraine, the maintenance of sanctions and an alleged hereditary enmity with Russia cannot be in Germany’s interest. We need diplomacy now! We must find our way back to a European peace project.”

Michael von der Schulenburg, MEP, May 9, 2025, Red Square in Moscow

4. we are considering restarting a pan-European integration from the bottom up as citizens of this continent, following the example of Hertenstein 1946, and organizing a European Citizens Conference in September 2026. We will keep you up to date on this.

5) Our European Peace Project is also an attempt to bring the European peace movements together and to internationalize ourselves again. Therefore, here are some recommendations of petitions or upcoming activities

It is that easy to motivate people for peace: https://www.neinzumkrieg.eu/

This A-WEF petition is an important impulse for a large peace movement. A first step to show how many we are! So that no one can deny it anymore: The people of our continent in Europe, all over the world, do not want war!

Germany must not side with the warring nations of the world – Petition of the World Beyond War initiative
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/germany-must-not-join-the-war-making-nations-of-the-world?clear_id=true

We are also a member and supporter of the network “Stop Rearm Europe – Welfare not warfare!”, which can be supported both as an organization and as an individual and which is calling for a week of action against NATO-driven rearmament during the NATO summit in The Hague from 21-26 June. More information here: https://stoprearm.org/

Here are just a few of the voices, videos from May 9 and suggestions for inspiration that we have already received from participants

– Sarah, a 6-year-old first grader, and her friends founded a little heart band. The girls fold hearts for peace and distribute them at school and all over their town and surrounding area. They firmly believe that peace will come if they give their hearts away. A crane (symbol of the Japanese peace and anti-nuclear movement) and heart folding campaign was enthusiastically received by many people on May 9.

– from Ruth: “I am 71 years old, do not belong to any political or ideological group and have never taken part in any public action in my life. As a body and breathing therapist, I mainly experienced the caring side of looking after people (including those with war trauma). After a period of great exhaustion following my retirement, I was finally able to deal with the background to war. I am appalled and shocked by the way conflicts (especially the war in Ukraine) are officially discussed and debated in this country. It is often paralyzing. Your initiative encouraged me to stand alone on the post office square in my Swiss village (population 10,000) yesterday and simply read this text out loud. I handed out small white florets with the printed manifesto. It was a very, very interesting experience to repeat.”

Video examples of actions
Vienna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvn23d2BG4A
Münster: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Bcxp98mdN/
Heidelberg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42BmRc9DXRs
Berlin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2RcgeLBGAo

Pictures and videos of the great action of friedlichzusammen in Berlin can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/friedlichzusammen/

And this great video with pictures and personal insight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TT6xBYbpNk
or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVvrpVCw9yQ from a Latvian woman as examples of people who have read the manifesto for themselves

On 10.5.25 in Belgium, together with some of our European Peace Project team and supporters, a “School of Peace” was founded at the Academia Libera Mentis https://liberamentis.org in connection with our European Peace Project, where you can train as a peace researcher.

A leading newspaper in Turkey, “Cumhuriyet Gazetesi” has written a long article about our #europeanpeaceproject https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/dunya/avrupa-baris-projesi-9-mayista-kitayi-barisa-cagirdi-2336934?fbclid=

A well-known channel in Belgium reported here: https://www.kairospresse.be/interview-regards-sur-le-european-peace-project-avec-ulrike-guerot/?fbclid=

Kind regards
Isabelle