12 October 2012

Graham Bishop's Blog: Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 awarded to EU

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 is to be awarded to the European Union (EU). The union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

In the inter-war years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee made several awards to persons who were seeking reconciliation between Germany and France.….

The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest. The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU’s most important result: the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights. The stabilizing part played by the EU has helped to transform most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace.”

The euro area is well aware of those economic and social difficulties and by a remarkable coincidence, Council President van Rompuy published his interim report on taking this process the next stage to a “genuine economic and monetary union” that will surely involve much closer political union amongst that sub-set of Europe.

Detractors of this award point to the role of NATO, and could also point to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as other ways of achieving this goal of reconciliation. However, they miss the vital point that the EU is far more than an agreement of mutual military assistance. The vision of the Founding Fathers was always to bring the entire peoples of Europe together so that trade between them would maximise their individual and collective wealth. Military activity against their neighbours would then be manifestly against their own best interests.

The EU has been, and remains, a beacon of inspiration for people who suffered under dictatorships to make the move to democracy.

The Nobel Committee has correctly noticed that the risks in the current situation are far more dangerous to a set-back to this process than at any time in the EU’s history. They have done a great service by reminding all Europeans that the process is still vulnerable – witness the rise in extremist (but still fringe) political parties in many states.

This is the moment to make every effort to strengthen solidarity amongst EU members to overcome the “grave economic difficulties” rather than fragmenting and risking the six-decade process unravelling.

http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/laureates/laureates-2012/announce-2012

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© Graham Bishop