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Nobel Peace Prize Awarded To European Union
BBC NEWS, EUROPE
October 12, 2012: The European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for six decades of work in advancing peace in Europe. The committee said the EU had helped to transform Europe "from a continent of war to a continent of peace".
The award comes as the EU faces the biggest crisis of its history, with recession and social unrest rocking many of its member states.
The last organization to be given the prize outright was Medecins Sans Frontieres in 1999.
Announcing the award, Nobel committee president Thorbjoern Jagland acknowledged the EU's current financial problems and social unrest. But he said the committee wanted to concentrate on the EU's work over six decades of advancing "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights".
'Biggest peacemaker'
Mr Jagland highlighted the EU's work in sealing the reconciliation between France and Germany in the decades after World War II and praised the organization for incorporating Spain, Portugal and Greece after their authoritarian regimes collapsed in the 1970s. The EU's reconciliation work had now moved to Balkan countries, he said, pointing out that Croatia is on the verge of membership. And he added that the possibility of EU membership for Turkey had also "advanced democracy and human rights in that country".
Senior EU figures were overjoyed with the award. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called it a "great honor", while European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said it was recognition for the work of "the biggest peacemaker in history".
In an interview with the BBC, Mr Barroso said that in awarding the prize to the EU, the Nobel Committee was saying that the European project should be cherished, both within and beyond Europe.
