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Paulo Roberto de Almeida

EU wins Nobel Peace Prize

By Richard Milne in Oslo and Peter Spiegel in Brussels

Financial Times, October 12, 2012

The EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its role in bringing democracy to a war-ravaged continent and in reconciling France and Germany.

The timing of the prize is contentious, with much of the EU embroiled in theeurozone crisis and deep debate over the future of Europe.

But Thorbjørn Jagland, head of the Oslo-based Nobel Committee, stressed that the award was a reminder to Europe not to discard the fruits of 60 years of integration as social unrest increases because of the economic crisis.

“We want to focus on what has been achieved in Europe in terms of peace and reconciliation,” Mr Jagland said. “It is a message to Europe to secure what they have achieved . . . and not let the continent go into disintegration again because it means the emergence of extremism and nationalism.”

Shortly after the Nobel announcement, José Manuel Barroso, who as the European Commission president is the most recognisable face of the EU, said he was honoured by the decision and that it was a reminder that even during the current crisis “the EU is something very precious”.

“It is a great honour for all 500m citizens of Europe, for all the member states and for all the European institutions,” Mr Barroso said at a hastily called news conference. “Through its transformative power, the EU was able, starting with six countries, to reunite almost all the European continent.”

Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, said the award was a deserving recognition to previous generations of European leaders and called the EU the “biggest peacemaking institution in world history”.

“We were in wars for centuries, we had two world wars,” Mr Van Rompuy said. “We put an end to them. With the EU, that kind of war cannot happen again.”

Mr Barroso and senior EU officials said they had no inkling the award was to be awarded to the institution until news reports out of Norway began to filter in. “I have to say that when I woke up this morning, I did not expect it to be such a good day,” Mr Barroso said.

The EU award follows a number of recent Nobel Peace Prizes that have been shrouded in controversy from US President Barack Obama in 2009 to Chinese democracy activist Liu Xiaobo the following year. Norwegian business is still feeling the effects of the latter award with visas to China almost impossible to obtain.

The Norwegian committee, which hands out only the peace prize, with all other Nobel awards coming from Sweden, has discussed the possibility of the EU winning for several years.

Geir Lundestad, the secretary of the committee, said two years ago that the EU was behind only Mahatma Gandhi in terms of being overlooked for the prize.

Mr Jagland said this year’s decision had been unanimous but Norwegian media reported that Ågot Valle, a former leading light of the anti-EU campaign in the country who sat in the committee, had been ill this year and thus unable to oppose the award as she had in previous years.