Brussels, 27/08/2003 (Agence Europe) - Francis Wurtz, President of the GUE/NGL group at the EP, notes in an open letter to MEPs that the award of the Sakharov Prize is an act of international importance for the European Parliament and it is therefore important to translate all the values the European Union has the ambition to embody. The two most notable events of the year have been the war on Iraq and the reaction of public opinion to the war, notes Wurtz, adding that the 2003 Sakharov Prize should therefore go to the United Nations, the ideals listed in its Charter and to the action of its representatives. On behalf of the GUE/NGL, Wurtz makes a combined nomination of three candidates, namely Sergio Vieira De Mello (posthumously) "who sacrificed his life to the peace mission he carried out for the UN”; Hans Blix, former head of the UN Weapons Inspectors in Iraq, and Mohamed El Baradei, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The action of the last two nominees “symbolises the international community' desire to seek an alternative to war".