Posted on 10/12/2012 5:40:03 AM PDT by reaganaut1
PARIS — The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its 2012 peace prize on Friday to the 27-nation European Union, lauding its role over six decades in building peace and reconciliation among enemies who fought Europe’s bloodiest wars, even as the continent wrestles with economic strife that threatens its cohesion and future.
But the award also seemed to illuminate competing visions of Europe as both historical unifier and meddlesome overlord, recalling deep strains within the bloc, primarily between Germany and other European nations over Berlin’s insistence on austerity measures that have brought pain to Europeans in Greece and Spain particularly.
Thorbjorn Jagland, the chairman of the panel awarding the prize, said it was a signal focusing on the union’s historical role binding France and Germany together after World War II and its perceived impact in spreading reconciliation and democracy beyond the Iron Curtain that once divided Europe and on to the Balkans. “The stabilizing part played by the E. U. has helped to transform most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace,” he said.
José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said the award proved that the European body was “something very precious.”
“It is justified recognition for a unique project that works for the benefit of its citizens and also for the benefit of the world,” he said. “The award today by the Nobel committee shows that, even in these difficult times, the European Union remains an inspiration for countries and people all over the world and that the international community needs a strong European Union.”
Norway is not a member of the European Union and Mr. Jagland said some people in his country were not aware of the historical role it had played.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Did NATO ever get a Nobel Peace prize? That's the organization that stopped European wars after World War II.
EU and Obama, LOL.
What idiots.
I’m shocked. I thought the Muslim Brotherhood had it wrapped up.
Good point.
Another loser Peace Prize for nothin.
They would have, but they’re too busy killing Salafists and uppity teenage girls to attend the acceptance ceremony.
Notice that neither Norway nor Sweden has adopted the Euro. If they had, they might not be so keen on the EU.
They’d run out of Democratic politicians to give it to. Slick Willie would have been a possibility, but that wouldn’t have done anything for Obama.
The prize money will fix that debt crisis, lol
Nigial Farrage is going to have a field day with this one.
I’m surprised that the “demonstrators” in bengazi didn’t get it.
Um, 6 decades? Is the Nobel Committee high? The EU has not been around for 60 years.
It is the biggest marker of failure possible.
Runners up: Fried Chicken. The Colonel foresook war to bring us something finger-lickin’ good.
The EU is a VILE anti-Christian successor to the Soviet Union!!!! What they did to the Serbs—and are still doing in Kosovo and Bosnia—is genocidal indeed!!!!
Fortunately, the EU is DYING! The bogus Nobel Peace Prize will be its epitaph!
Feckless, quisling politicians who steer Serbia toward joining the EU are DEAD WRONG!!!! Neither Serbia no Ukraine should join the EU, and Orthodox Romania and Bulgaria should GET OUT! (Greece will be a tougher proposition—but it was EU membership and the Euro that got it into its predicament.) There are other candidates (the Czech Republic) for early exit from the EU as well.
PHOOEY to the EU, and PHOOEY to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which messed up big time as it almost always does!!!!
Other runners up: Coca Cola, the universal drink of corporate brotherhood.
Corporations, for giving radical leftists something to protest against
B’tzelem, for combining agitation with creative photography
George Soros, because he gave the Nobel Committee a lot of money
CNN: For objective, credible journalism and refusing to provide any
Turkeys: They taste so good with cranberry sauce
Cranberry sauce: It tastes so good with turkey
The motivation for all these was to get on the meal ticket and now that the welfare office in Brussels has closed it is a matter of time till they would want their sovereignties back. We shall see how peaceful that process will be.
If only Mark Twain or Groucho Marx were alive to properly eulogize the Nobel Committee. They left us on our own to deride that which can never be sufficiently derided. Sob.
The Nobel people are setting into a pattern of awarding incompetence.
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