NOBEL PRIZE FOR THE EU: A POLITICAL MESSAGE!

by N. Peter Kramer

The committee has chosen to send a political message, acknowledged as much by its Chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, who said: ‘we want to remind us all what can happen if disintegration starts and if we let extremism and nationalism start growing in Europe again’. If Jagland wants to remind the EU of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the extremism and nationalism that grew after that in many Balkan states, it was quite a harsh warning. The EU of that time was, in fact, not able at all to play a role as a peacemaker in the Balkan wars; it needed the US to bring calm and a kind of peace in that part of Europe.

A political message by the Norwegian Nobel Committee is not new; it awarded the Peace Prize for instance to the entire United Nations in 2001, not to forget the award to Barack Obama less than a year into his first term as US President, and before he kept up hawkish US practices such as using drones in Pakistan and Yemen. Is it really the job of a Norwegian committee to use the prestigious award to get involved in political affairs rather than single out real and great achievements and elevate them into models for the world as in the case of the awards to Mother Teresa and Albert Schweitzer? Nobel committee member Lundestad has already said that ‘some people will find awarding the EU controversial’, not at least in Norway where ‘support for the EU is at an all-time low’.

At any rate, the Presidents of the European institutions were incredibly happy with the Nobel Peace Prize for the EU. Martin Schulz, the EP President, won the race to contact the press corps about the prize, his press release came first. Commission President Barroso came second. After his message a joint press release from Barroso and Van Rompuy, the Council President, sent by the Commission was published; followed by the same joint press release of both Presidents, this time sent by the Council. After that a message of Herman van Rompuy himself and not to forget one from Baroness Ashton, Vice-President of the Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

The top EU personalities quickly started to jostle for the limelight. Barroso posed for a photo opportunity getting flowers from the Norwegian ambassador to the EU and Schulz’s message ended with: ‘on behalf of the European Parliament we, together with the other EU institutions, look forward to receiving the prize in Oslo’. There is a lot of confusion as to who the prize is really for and who will go to Oslo on December 10 to pick it up. It is remarkable that the European Union is mentioned without any name of a leader. In the past the United Nations together with its Secretary-General Kofi Annan won the prize and the IAA with its then boss Mohamed Al Baradei. Maybe the Nobel Prize Committee considers none of the European leaders worthwhile mentioning…