A symposium in tribute to former Polish foreign minister and MEP Bronislaw Geremek, who died in a car crash last summer, is held today at the Italian Academy of Science.

It is attended by President Giorgio Napolitano and former prime minister Romano Prodi,  and the speakers include the Italian historian and Geremek’s friend Girolamo Arnaldi as well as Polish historian Karol Modzelewski and journalist Adam Michnik, editor of Gazeta Wyborcza.

On the eve of the symposium, the daily La Repubblica published Geremek’s article entitled ‘My Solidarity’ in which he described Solidarity as a movement of liberation and a humanistic revolution which, from the very beginning, ruled out the use of violence.

At a ceremony in Strasbourg today, a courtyard in the European Parliament has been named after Bronislaw Geremek.