Victims of Terrorism as European Heroes: The Range and Limits of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism

This paper is designed as a contribution to the study of relations between European memory policies and processes of identification with Europe. It focuses on the case of the European Day in Memory of Victims of Terrorism, which has been celebrated each year on March 11 since the 2004 terrorist attacks in Madrid. The adoption of this day of commemoration is first analyzed as the result of the opening of a window of opportunity in the post-September 11, 2001, context. The author then studies the specific role played in this context by the rise in generality at the European level of the cause of victims of ETA relayed by elected representatives of the European People’s Party in order to understand why this day seems to comply with the model of the commemoration of the dead for their country. However, the limitations of the implementation of this day outside of Spain attest that this model cannot be established effectively at the European level. Instead of being a memorial ritual striving to maintain the memory of the reactions of solidarity in Europe to the attacks in Madrid in 2004 and thus strengthen European identity, this day of commemoration should be regarded as simply an instrument for a policy aiming at the recognition of the victims.