Les dirigeants européens saluent la chute du Mur et jurent de combattre les nouveaux défis[en][de] 

The centre piece of the "Festival of Freedom", which marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, was an artistic project reproducing the domino effect of the events in 1989. 

Organised by the City of Berlin with the participation of the Commission's services, 1000 giant domino pieces lined up over 1.2 km on the former site of the Berlin wall from Checkpoint Charlie to the Reichstag were made to collapse as the Wall once did. 

The symbolic domino pieces have been painted all around the world, mainly by school children but also by several public figures including Commission President Barroso and European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek who will contribute to toppling the dominos in Berlin. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders from Britain, France and Russia greeted tens of thousands who braved pouring rain at the Brandenburg Gate on Monday evening to celebrate the anniversary of the Wall's collapse, which paved the way for German unification and the end of the Cold War. 

"Together we brought down the Iron Curtain and I am convinced this can give us the strength for the 21st century," said Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany and crossed the Wall herself the night of Nov. 9, 1989. 

"Our good fortune obliges us to take on the challenges of our time," she added. 

The grim weather did not prevent people from packing the square in front of the Gate, once a desolate no-man's land and now a powerful symbol of a reunified Germany. 

Countless others watched from balconies, while some lined side streets to catch a glimpse of the leaders as they strode through the Gate from East to West, retracing the steps of Berliners who stormed the Wall 20 years ago. 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Wall's collapse was a call to "fight against the walls that still exist in our world and which still divide cities, regions and nations." 

His Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev called for the building of a "new, better world" and a common battle against economic crisis, crime, terrorism and poverty. 

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged fellow leaders to work together to advance freedom beyond "current frontiers". 

Wałęsa topples 

After the leaders spoke, the former head of the Polish Solidarity movement, Lech Wałęsa, toppled the first of a chain of giant coloured dominoes set up along a 1.5 km (0.9 mile) stretch where the Wall once stood. 

Seconds after he knocked over the first domino, a TV cameraman crashed into him from behind. Wałęsa fell softly onto the domino but the cameraman tumbled hard to the wet pavement. 

Backed by the Soviet Union, the East German government began erecting its "anti-fascist protection barrier" in the early hours of Aug. 13, 1961, to end a mass flight of its citizens into capitalist West Berlin. 

Initially a makeshift fence of barbed wire, it was built up into an imposing 156-km (97-mile) concrete wall ("Mauer" in German) that encircled West Berlin and was patrolled by guards with orders to shoot anyone who tried to escape. 

According to a study this year, at least 136 people were killed at the Wall between 1961 and 1989 while trying to flee. 

Thousands of others managed to evade the minefields, guard dogs and watchtowers, using schemes including tunnels, aerial wires and hidden compartments in cars to make it to the West. 

Not a single shot was fired when the Wall fell two decades ago. That night turned into a giant city-wide party, with easterners roaming the streets of West Berlin in disbelief and residents from both sides embracing each other. 

On Monday, fireworks lit up the grey sky, recreating the festive atmosphere that engulfed the city in 1989. 

"I was in mother's tummy when the Wall came down," 19-year old Nika Schole said. "It's hard to imagine what people experienced that day 20 years ago, but I came here to get a feel for what it was like." 

Helmut Kohl, chancellor when the Wall fell, promised easterners "flourishing landscapes" when the two Germanys unified a year later. 

But despite an estimated 1.3 trillion euros ($1.9 trillion) in transfers to rebuild the East, the so-called "new states" still suffer from unemployment rates twice that of the West. 

A poll of over 1,000 Germans for the Leipziger Volkszeitung daily showed one in eight wanted the Wall rebuilt -- with the numbers nearly equal in East and West. 

(EurActiv with Reuters) 

Commission president José Manuel Barroso, who participated in the "Festival of Freedom" in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, said: 

"The fall of the Berlin Wall represents not only the collapse of totalitarianism in Central and Eastern Europe, but is also an impressive symbol of the reunification of Germany and the whole of Europe. The 9 November 1989 was a moment in which everything seemed possible, marked by happiness, a desire for freedom and the idea of a peaceful revolution. A truly historic day that reminded me in many regards of the Portuguese revolution of 1974 that I experienced as an 18-year old student." 

" 1989 was a year that transformed Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall was one of the most striking symbolic images of our times", said Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Inter-institutional Relations and Communication Strategy. 

European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek, who was a member of Solidarność, the first free trade union in a Warsaw Pact country, said in a speech that in 1989, people and nations began a very important process: the building of a new European identity. 

“But we must go further,” Buzek continued. “For us Europeans the East of our continent still remains crucial. If Europe wishes to speak with one voice to our Eastern partner, it has to learn to look at the East through the eyes of its historic neighbours,” he stated. 

"Today, the 9th of November, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I reflect firstly on the victims of Communist dictatorships, of which this wall was the sad symbol", declared Joseph Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. 

Joseph Daul welcomed the historic role played in the liberation by Pope John Paul II, but also by Lech Wałęsa, Mikhail Gorbachev and Chancellor Helmut Kohl. “Alongside many others, whose actions have not always been recognised, these figures have proven that we can make things happen if we want them badly enough. With their courage and willingness, they have made the impossible possible. And they have paved the way for 500 million Europeans to live today in a free Europe without frontiers,” Daul said. 

The opening of the Wall on 9-11-1989 brought significant opportunities for the peaceful development of Europe and for the end of the cold war, said Lothar Bisky, European United Left/Nordic Green left (GUE/NGL) president. “Many of these opportunities were taken (freedom of movement, freedom of the press, democracy, the Eastern enlargement of the EU and many others), but some were not. Thus military conflicts in the Balkans and in the Caucasus emerged,” Bisky stated. 

The leftist leaded added that the opening of the Wall also brought about the opportunity for the Left to deal consistently with the past and to draw conclusions from the deformations of state socialism. “The idea of democratic socialism, suppressed by force in Prague in 1968, was taken up again and was developed further. There is no socialism without democracy and liberty,” said Bisky.