The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts
to promote peace and democracy in Europe despite being in the midst of
its biggest crisis since the bloc was created in the 1950s.
The Norwegian prize committee said the EU received the award for six
decades of contributions “to the advancement of peace and
reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.
“The stabilizing part played by the European Union has helped to
transform a once torn Europe from a continent of war to a continent of
peace,” Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said.
The EU rose from the ashes of World War II, born of the conviction that
ever-closer economic ties would make sure that century-old enemies never
turned on each other again. It’s now made up of 500 million people in
27 nations, with other nations lined up, waiting to join.
The idea of a united Europe began to take on a more defined shape when,
on May 9, 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed that
France and the Federal Republic of Germany pool their coal and steel
resources in a new organization that other European countries could
join.
“Today war between Germany and France is unthinkable. This shows how,
through well-aimed efforts and by building up mutual confidence,
historical enemies can become close partners,” the committee said.
The citation also noted the democratic conditions the EU has demanded of
all those nations waiting to join, referred to Greece and Spain when
they joined the 1980, and to the countries in Eastern Europe who sought
EU membership after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
The prize focused on the EU’s historical role as a builder of peace at a
time when the union’s existence is under challenge from the financial
crisis that has stirred deep tensions between north and south and when
there are questions about the form in which the EU will survive.
“The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and
considerable social unrest,” Jagland said. “The Norwegian Nobel
Committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU’s most important
result- the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for
democracy and human rights.
“The stabilizing part played by the EU has helped to transform most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace.”
It was not yet clear who would accept the prize for the EU.