Nobel Peace Prize handed to crisis-hit EU

European Union Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso receives flowers from  Norway's+Ambassador+to+the+EU Atle Leikvoll

The European Union, facing its worst crisis in six decades, was officially awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize on Monday for turning Europe "from a continent of war to a continent of peace".

With a score of EU heads of state and government looking on, Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland handed the prize to a threesome of EU leaders - EU president Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and European parliament president Martin Schulz.

The Norwegian committee that awards the prize said the EU won in recognition of its role in the “advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”.

Critics have pointed out Norway is not in the European Union and does not have a proper grasp of the problems gripping the community.

And it is unlikely the £800,000 windfall awarded to prizewinners will make a dent in the £4trillion bill so far run up by the debt and banking problems.

It is not the first time the EU has been nominated, but the timing of the award with the region in the midst of its worst economic crisis raised many an eyebrow.

Even Nobel committee chairman ­Thorbjoern Jagland warned the financial storm raging through Europe could lead to a return to the sort of fanaticism the EU was set up to guard against after the Second World War.

But he added: “We should do everything to safeguard it, not let it disintegrate and let the extremism and nationalism grow again, because we know what ­catastrophes that leads to.

"The stabilising part played by the EU has helped to ­transform most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace.”

German ­Chancellor Angela Merke

German ­Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the Nobel committee for awarding the EU the prize insisting that efforts to save the euro were an effort to ensure peace on the continent.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso added: “It is a prize not just for the institutions ­embodying a common interest, but for the 500 million living in our union.”

Former PM Tony Blair said: “We would do well to remember that when the Second World War ended Europe was in ruins.

"What followed has been years of peace.”

The EU is the first ­organisation to be awarded the prize, since aid charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in 1999.

December 10, 2012