Plans to create a museum celebrating the "common historical memory" of the European Union have run into controversy over attempts to agree an account of key events including Second World War.

MEPs have given the green light to a multi-million pound state-of-the-art "House of European History" to be opened in Brussels by 2014.

The project to "promote an awareness of European identity" is the brainchild of Hans-Gert Poettering, President of the European Parliament and a Federalist German Christian Democrat.

"I should like to create a locus for history and for the future where the concept of the European idea can continue to grow," he said.