The European Union has won the Nobel Peace Prize for its role in bringing democracy to a post war continent and for maintaining peace…even though there are mass protests across the Eurozone and the suicide rate is skyrocketing, and democracy has been eroded….
The timing of the award puts into question the state of mind of the Oslo-based Nobel committee who reasoned that the award should be given as a reminder to Europe to not throw away 70 years of peace.
Thorbjorn Jagland who heads the committee said; “We want to focus on what has been achieved in Europe in terms of peace and reconciliation.” If that’s the case then why give the reward to the EU?
NATO is the organisation that has bound the military’s of Europe together and the EU’s failure to maintain peace is highlighted with the body’s failure to intervene in the Kosovo war and the savage conflicts that ripped apart the former nation of Yugoslavia.
Some commentators are claiming that the reward was issued in an attempt to distract people from the devastating economic failures of the EU and the fundamental failings of the single currency. The Eurozone crisis has made the EU appear more divided than ever with mass demonstrations against the organisation taking place daily right across the continent.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, hailed the choice, and insisted that efforts to save the euro with the imposition of controversial austerity policies was part of the EU’s tradition as a peace project.
“I often say that the euro is more than a currency and we should not forget that in these weeks and months we spend working to strengthen the Euro. The euro is more than a currency because at the end of the day it is about the original idea of a union of peace and of values,” she told reporters.
Many European leaders are seeing the prize as backing for further Eurozone integration and greater unity as the region continues to face a crisis that threatens to rip the union apart. Ironically in the name of peace a typical EU turf war broke out between Mr Barroso, Mr Van Rompuy and Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, over which EU president should collect the prize.
Greece has seen its economy ravaged, Spain appears to be on the verge of disintegration and Portugal is drowning under the weights of its debt. One thing is for certain, the EU has come at a heavy and costly price both in money and human lives.
Whether or not the Union is worth it or not remains to be seen.
As of 14:30pm
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