Top 3 EU Chiefs to Accept Nobel Peace Prize

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | October 18, 2012, Thursday // 12:24
Top 3 EU Chiefs to Accept Nobel Peace Prize: Top 3 EU Chiefs to Accept Nobel Peace Prize On October 12, the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union. File photo

The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, the EU President, Herman Van Rompuy, and the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, are traveling to Oslo to be bestowed the Nobel Peace Prize.

"We will go together," Schultz told journalists in Paris during a meeting with French President, Francois Hollande, in the eve of the new EU summit in Brussels.

He noted this has been a common decision between the three.

When asked by a journalist who would deliver the speech in Oslo on December 10, Schultz replied he did not yet know, adding that "what was more important for him was the fact the three EU institutions will be present together than who would be the speaker."

On October 12, the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union, obviously playing down the impact of the raging euro zone debt crisis.

The prize will be presented in Oslo on December 10. The decision by the five-member panel, led by Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjoern Jagland, was unanimous.

The committee said the EU had helped to transform Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace.

The EU and its predecessors "have over six decades contributed to peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights," Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said in Oslo.

Jagland acknowledged the EU's current financial problems and social unrest.

But he said the committee wanted to concentrate on the body's work over six decades of advancing "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights".

The last organization to be given the award outright was Medecins Sans Frontieres, which won in 1999.

Praise, gratitude and shock followed the news that the Nobel Peace Prize this year goes to the European Union.

Speaking shortly after the Nobel announcement in Oslo, Barroso, said he was honored by the decision and that it was a reminder that even during the current crisis, "the EU is something very precious".

Schulz said he was "deeply touched and honored" with the award.

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Tags: prize, peace, European Union, EU, Nobel, Jose Manuel Barroso, Herman van Rompuy, Martin Schulz, Oslo, European, Commission, parliament

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