The EU received the Nobel Peace Prize this week for promoting peace and human rights in Europe following the devastation of World War II, and the bloc was urged to use that unity in its battle with an economic crisis that is causing suffering for many of its citizens.
About 20 European government leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Premier Mario Monti, attended the ceremony in the capital of Norway, an oil-rich country that has twice rejected joining the European Union.
Not everyone approved the decision to give the prize to the EU, created 60 years ago as Europe was struggling to recover from a war that killed millions of people.
Three Peace Prize laureates – South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland and Adolfo Perez Esquivel from Argentina – have demanded that the prize money of $1.2 million not be paid this year. They said the bloc contradicts the values associated with the prize because it relies on military force to ensure security.
Amnesty International said Monday that EU leaders should not “bask in the glow of the prize,” warning that xenophobia and intolerance are now on the rise in the continent of 500 million people.
Prize committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland handed out the Nobel diplomas and medals to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and president of the EU Parliament Martin Schulz before at a ceremony in Oslo’s City Hall attended by heads of state, royalty and international dignitaries.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
it is a fraud and a shame
The author of this scurrilous and biased article has conveniently forgotten to remind you all of the rationale behind the foundation of what is now known as the European Union. After all, this is http://www.matzav.com, so why let the truth get in the way of a sensational story?
Throughout its political history, the countries of Europe have been riven by war, hatred, economic strife and rivalry, and – more recently – by the Holocaust. After World War II, moves towards European integration were seen by many as an escape from the extreme forms of nationalism that had devastated the continent.
Since 1945 not a single bullet or shell has been fired in anger anywhere in western Europe. The continent has enjoyed unprecedented economic improvement. There is no need to undergo passport or visa controls throughout the area covered by the European Union’s Schengen Agreement. There is totally free movement of labor throughout the EU.
The award of the Nobel Peace Prize rightfully acknowledges the simple fact that Europe is and has been at peace since 1945 – a period of 67 continuous years.
If Sol #1 had taken just a moment to stop and check he might have realized that is totally unprecedented record.