On 13 June 2022, a new Václav Havel place was inaugurated at the Jean Monnet House in Bazoches-sur-Guyonne in the presence of President Roberta Metsola and all members of Parliament’s Bureau, together with Michael Žantovský, director of the Havel Library in Prague. This space joins other Václav Havel spaces in 45 countries around the world, connecting visitors to a network of discussions happening right now across the world inspired by the work of the Czechoslovak playwright, philosopher, dissident, politician and head of state.

A Václav Havel bench. Bořek Šípek, an architect, designer and friend of Havel, came up with a public object inspired by Havel's personality and democratic ideals: it consists of two wooden chairs, joined by a round table with a hole in the centre, where a lime tree, the national tree of the Czech Republic, grows. ©  European Parliament

This tribute to Havel follows the naming of one a European Parliament’s building in Strasbourg after him in July 2017 in recognition of his tireless battle for human rights, democracy and a united and reconciled Europe. The new space demonstrates the continued recognition of Václav Havel in the European Union and testifies to the ongoing work of Europeans since the initiatives of Jean Monnet, a ‘founding father’ of the European Union, and his contemporaries. From the initiation of European integration after the Second World War to continued efforts to unite the continent during the twentieth century until the present, this space of dialogue invites visitors to join a long history of discussions on Europe, symbolically connected to other visitors to Václav Havel places, in the quiet surrounds of the Jean Monnet House, one of the places where it all began.

A booklet with a comprehensive biography of Václav Havel and a 1994 speech of his on European integration and identity delivered to the European Parliament can be downloaded here.