Brussels, 12/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Surprised and moved, the main leaders of Europe accepted the grand honour of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded in Oslo on Friday 12 October to the European Union for promoting peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe for more than six decades. In a joint press release, the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso, said: “It is a tremendous honour for the European Union to be awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. It is a prize not just for the project and the institutions embodying a common interest, but for the 500 million citizens living in our Union.”
The Peace Prize has been awarded in the midst of the eurozone debt crisis, which the Nobel Committee recognised. The committee chair, Thorbjørn Jagland, said the EU is undergoing grave economic problems and considerable social troubles, but the Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to focus on what it sees as the most important outcome of the EU, the successful struggle for peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights, and the way it had helped turn Europe from a continent at war to a continent of peace. The prize will be officially awarded in Oslo on 10 December, but on Friday in Brussels, the European Commission did not have any details of the awards ceremony or who would travel to Oslo to pick up the prize for the EU.
The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU this year, despite it failing to be granted the prize in the past, took EU leaders by surprise. Barroso said he never expected it and European Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström tweeted her surprise at this unexpected event, which was a welcome reminder of the importance of European cooperation.
Other European politicians say the Nobel Prize confirms the values and venture upon which the EU is based. The head of the S&D party at the EP, Hannes Swoboda, said the European project is not just a guarantor of peace in Europe and for the current twenty-seven member states, but also for the wider Europe, Europe's neighbours and countries hoping to join the EU in the near future. In a press release, he said that in this time of crisis, Oslo has been courageous in awarding the Noble Peace Prize to the European Union, adding that more Europe is needed these days, not less and not a return to the era of individual nation states.
Speaking on behalf of the Greens/EFA, its joint leader, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, said the EU must now apply for a seat at the United Nations Security Council and must pledge to restore social peace in all European countries in crisis. Fellow Greens/EFA leader Rebecca Harms welcomed the surprising and courageous choice, saying that despite its imperfections and unfinished state, the EU has been a totally exceptional peace and unity project since 1957.
The ECR party at the EP refused to join in the general delight. Its leader, Martin Callanan, sarcastically commented that the Peace Prize was a late April Fool's Day joke and was no doubt a prize for harmony in the streets of Athens and Madrid. (SP/transl.fl)