This year, the Nobel Peace Prize did not go to an individual, but to an organization:the European Union. The EU received the award because it has contributed to the promotion of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe for more than 60 years.
The Nobel Prize Committee pointed to the major role that the EU and its predecessors played in promoting reconciliation between France and Germany after the Second World War. “Today, a war between these countries is unthinkable.” She also praised the EU's role in supporting democracy in former southern European dictatorships such as Portugal and Spain that joined the EU in the 1980s.
In Eastern Europe, the EU is also currently playing a positive role in bringing former warring parties closer together, the committee found. This is done by, among other things, promoting peace between Serbia and Croatia by offering those countries the prospect of EU membership in the long term.
Finally, the EU also promoted more democracy and better enforcement of human rights in Turkey, while the country was still preparing for EU membership. Although that membership was never realized, the pursuit of this did indirectly lay a foundation for political innovation in Turkey.
Help in the back
The price comes at a good time for the EU, which is currently under fire from the euro crisis. Supporting the EU during this difficult time for the organization was therefore an important motivation for awarding the Nobel Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee focused on the most important consequence of the formation and further expansion of the EU:namely the creation of long-lasting peace on a continent that before the formation of the EU was known for its many wars. The First and Second World Wars that cost millions of lives worldwide, for example.
The EU's work also represents a form of 'brotherhood between peoples' and resembles the 'peace conferences' that Alfred Nobel, the prize's founder, saw as important criteria for winning it, the committee went on to reason.
Other nominees
The EU was chosen from a record number of 241 candidates for the prize, which amounts to eight million Swedish kronor (930,000 euros). Other nominees included former president of the United States Bill Clinton, but also, for example, whistleblower organization Wikileaks and the Arab Spring.