(VOVworld) – EU leaders have held a ceremony in Ypres, Belgium to mark the 100^th anniversary of the start of World War One with a commitment to maintaining peace on the continent.

(Photo: bbc.co.uk)

The leaders laid a wreath at Menin Gate memorial. Ypres is close to the Western Front battlefields where hundreds of thousands lost their lives, and the gate bears some 54,000 names of the missing. In a moving ceremony, the leaders dedicated a memorial bench stamped with the word "peace" in the EU's 24 official languages. World War One recorded 14 million deaths including 5 million civilians and 9 million soldiers from 28 countries.