EU leaders receive Nobel Peace Prize
Bloc handed award for turning Europe 'from continent of war to a continent of peace' as the organisation faces its worst crisis in six decades
European Union Nobel Peace Prize winners pledged at the award ceremony yesterday “to stand by” the euro, saying the single currency was one of the strongest symbols of unity in the bloc’s 60-year history.
“Today, one of the most visible symbols of our unity is in everyone’s hands,” said Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president. “It is the euro, the currency of our European Union. We will stand by it.”
The EU was handed the prize as it faces its worst crisis in six decades 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 EU president Herman van Rompuy, Barroso and European parliament president Martin Schulz.
Recalling the 80 million European victims of war and extremism last century, Jagland said: “Peace must not be taken for granted. We have to struggle for it every day.”
However, his committee has come under criticism for giving the award to the EU when it is riven by divisions and violent anti-austerity protests.