New online exhibition features EU's eastern enlargement

The Historical Archives of the European Union has launched a new online exhibition to mark the 10^th anniversary of the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union. 

"Ten Years of the New Europe – 10th Anniversary of the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union" was the title of a recent international conference at the European University Institute. The exhibition produced for that conference represents the variety of fonds available at the Historical Archives referring to European politics from the period of the collapse of communism symbolised in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 until the two EU Enlargements of 2004 and 2007.

The private papers of key personalities for this period, such as Romano Prodi, Graham Avery and Angel Viñas, have been deposited at Villa Salviati and, while the majority of archival materials concerning the years after 1989 are still closed to the public, certain parts of these collections have been partially opened to consultation.

The exhibition draws also from such institutional fonds as the European Investment Bank which reveals the financial support measures of the EU in favour of Eastern European countries. The European Space Agency’s deposits on the other hand highlight how the political cooperation between East and West changed. Finally, the cooperation agreement between the Republic of Poland and the European University Institute of 1997 represents the enhanced academic cooperation between East and West after 1989.