OSLO — The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its 2012 peace prize on Friday to the 27-nation European Union, saying it had contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation across the continent.
But Thorbjørn Jagland, the chairman of the panel awarding the prize, said it was a signal from the committee concerning reconciliation in Europe and a message to the continent to carry on such work, focusing on the union’s historical role binding France and Germany together after World War II.
Norway is not a member of the European Union and, therefore, Mr. Jagland said, some people in his country were not aware of the role played by the European Union.
“The union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe,” Mr. Jagland said.
“In the interwar years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee made several awards to persons who were seeking reconciliation between Germany and France. Since 1945, that reconciliation has become a reality. The dreadful suffering in World War II demonstrated the need for a new Europe. Over a 70-year period, Germany and France had fought three wars. Today war between Germany and France is unthinkable. This shows how, through well-aimed efforts and by building up mutual confidence, historical enemies can become close partners.”
Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, said on Twitter: “Deeply touched, honored, that the E.U. has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Reconciliation is what the E.U. is about. It can serve as inspiration. The E.U. is an unique project that replaced war with peace, hate with solidarity. Overwhelming emotion for awarding of Nobel Prize to E.U..
Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister, said on Twitter: “I warmly congratulate all of Europe and our peace to the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union. Highly deserved and highly important!”
The announcement came against a global backdrop of conflict, with civil war in Syria threatening to spill across the region, the Afghanistan war grinding into a second decade and earlier hopes of a new era of tranquillity in the Middle East largely abandoned.
The peace prize climaxes a week in which Nobel institutions have awarded prizes in science and literature that rank among the world’s most coveted emblems of excellence. The prize for economics is to be awarded on Monday.
In an unusual leak less than an hour before the prize was to be announced, Norwegian television said on its Web site that the winner was the European Union, held by some to have bound together Europe’s erstwhile warring nations into one of the biggest trading blocs in the world with aspirations among some nations to create ever closer political integration. There was no official confirmation of the report.
The Nobel juries are traditionally reticent about their selections, keeping the names of contenders a closely guarded secret, and the peace prize is no exception. Independent forecasters have been unable to agree on a favorite for the 2012 prize.
The deadline for outside nominations was Feb. 1, with Nobel committee members adding their own candidates and closing the list three weeks later. The 231 nominations included 43 organizations.
European bookmakers had given the best odds to Gene Sharp, an American political scientist and theorist of nonviolent resistance; and to a Coptic Christian nun in Egypt, Maggie Gobran, who aids children in Cairo’s slums.
But the Russian human rights group Memorial, former President Bill Clinton and Afghan human rights commissioner Sima Samar had also been reported to be among the 2012 nominees. Speculation also touched on figures from the Arab Spring, including President Moncef Marzouki of Tunisia and several prominent activist bloggers.
Nigerian religious leaders John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan and Mohamed Sa’ad Abubakar were said to be candidates, along with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the European Union.
Last year’s prize was shared by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian antiwar activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman, a democracy activist in Yemen.
The Nobel committee lauded “their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participations in peace-building work.”
The 2010 prize caused a diplomatic freeze between Norway and China that has yet to thaw. That year’s laureate was Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese human rights campaigner imprisoned for co-authoring a pro-democracy manifesto called Charter 08.
In 2009, the five-member Nobel committee in Oslo selected President Obama less than a year into his term, saying he had “created a new climate in international politics.”
The peace prize is one of five awards set up more than century ago by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. He specified that Norway’s Parliament should appoint a committee to recognize those who had “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
The 2012 prizes were worth 8 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 million, a reduction from the 10 million kronor that had been standard from 2001 to 2011. The Nobel Foundation has said its investment capital took a sharp hit in the 2008 financial crisis.
*Source: New York Times (Walter Gibbs reported from Oslo, and Alan Cowell from Paris)
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