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Special edition: On 10th anniversary of Nobel Prize, EU leaders reflect on Europe’s fragile peace
By Euronews Brussels bureau
Good morning and welcome to this special edition of the Briefing.
Ten years ago today, the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its decades-long contribution to peace, democracy and human rights in Europe.
The award was a moment of pride and celebration for the bloc, whose raison d'être was forged on the ashes and ruins of two bloody world wars. But now, with another brutal war raging on, the long-held illusion of the continent as an oasis of peace has been viciously dashed.
On the 10th anniversary of the Nobel Prize, Euronews met with the same leaders who travelled to Oslo to receive the award on the EU’s behalf: former European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, former European Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso and former European Parliament President Martin Schulz. Our correspondent Anelise Borges also spoke with current European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
The exclusive interviews offer a sharp and inspiring reflection on the EU’s past, present and future.
“I delivered a speech, the best speech in my life. I tried to rise to the occasion,” remembers Van Rompuy. “And I saw, all of a sudden, in the room that President (François) Hollande of France took the hands of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. They stood up. And it was really an emotional moment.”
For Barroso, who worked closely with Van Rompuy while in Brussels, the EU is “not just about the absence of war” but also the defence of freedom, the rule of law and the equality between men and women.
“The European Union is not perfect,” said Barroso. “But I believe that – without arrogance – we can be proud of the community of values we have been able to establish in Europe.”
The timing of the Nobel Prize was particularly striking: the EU was in the midst of a devastating and politically explosive debt crisis. The future of the euro was at stake. Many expected Greece to leave the single currency – or be outright expelled.
“In the end, when the history of the European Union will be written in a few decades, they will not mention those long negotiations. They’re all forgotten,” said Van Rompuy.
“We saved the euro, we saved the eurozone. And by saving the eurozone, we saved the European Union, because the collapse of the eurozone would have been the collapse of the European Union.”
Barroso agreed with his former colleague and noted the complex, intricate decision-making that has characterised the EU since its foundation is an inevitable but necessary element to make it work.
“I’m sure it would be much worse to have those 27 countries competing all the time or trying to fight for supremacy,” Barroso told Anelise. “Today, there is a spirit of compromise, a spirit of shared sovereignty that I believe is more and more important for the world today.”
For Roberta Metsola, who today presides over the bloc’s only democratically-elected institution, European integration is the perfect answer against the most egotistical impulses of the nation-state, despite the persistent criticism the EU intrudes upon national jurisdiction.
“There is no alternative. I think Europe as bringing together countries. And I speak to my British colleagues all the time and I miss them,” Metsola said.
“The instinct is always to close borders, to look inwards. But if one thing has shown us and taught us is that being together is so much stronger. So, I would answer those critics: I would never ignore them. I think that the mistake we might have made is thinking that the project can live alone. But we need to fight for it. We need to defend it. And I think most importantly, we need to explain it.”
Although the leaders were quick to praise the EU’s long list of political achievements, they also admitted that Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine represents a formidable challenge that threatens the bloc’s core identity – and even its own existence.
“(Vladimir) Putin has a goal: to destroy the EU. This is exactly the goal of Putin,” said Martin Schulz. “A transnational, cross-border, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multicultural corporation of the European nations is the opposite of what the Russians want – or Putin wants.”
With Europe’s future turning cloudier and murkier than ever before, Anelise posed a pressing question: Where will the EU be in ten years’ time?
“I think Europe is now losing some of its innocence,” said Barroso. “It’s true that the European Union was, for a long time, thinking more about the markets, economic integration, and not sufficiently about power. And at the end of the day, we need power to defend our values. We are living in a rough, tough neighbourhood.”
“We have a role to play”, said Van Rompuy. “And not only to reassure people but to organise society, to organise Europe, to organise the world in such a way that there’s no reason to fear anymore.”
WATCH The special Nobel Peace Prize edition of The Global Conversation.
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WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
INSIDE KHERSON As part of this Nobel Prize special edition, Anelise Borges travelled to Kherson to see for herself how life in the Ukrainian city has changed after being liberated from Russian forces. While the news was celebrated across the world, the reality that emerged in the aftermath makes up for a rude awakening. “It took just a few hours for the joy and relief of the liberation to give way to the angst and hunger that now inhabit most of its residents,” Anelise says in the latest episode of Euronews Witness. Watch her full report from inside Kherson.
FINNISH U-TURN Finland, which shares a 1,340 km long border with Russia, is betting its geopolitical standing on a pending application to join NATO, ditching decades of military non-alignment. But Turkey says it's in “no rush” to ratify the bid and that approval depends on whether Helsinki meets a series of demands, like removing a ban on arms sales. Will Finland agree? The answer increasingly seems to be “yes, it will.” At the same time, the Nordic country is having a change of heart regarding a long-standing source of public mistrust: nuclear power.
SCHENGEN FALLOUT Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has blasted Austria for single-handedly blocking his country’s accession into the passport-free Schengen Area, calling the move “inexplicable,” “regrettable” and “unjustified.” This is what else he had to say.
PLANET’S HEALTH The international community needs an overarching goal to protect the world’s biodiversity, akin to the 1.5 °C goal set out in the Paris Agreement, says Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for the environment. “Societies still don't understand what biodiversity is,” Sinkevičius told Euronews ahead of the COP15 summit in Montreal. “To be honest, it's about humans, first of all, and the health of our planet.”
ASYLUM CRISIS Coming from Afghanistan, Africa and the Middle East, hundreds of people have arrived in Brussels with the hopes of seeking asylum in Belgium. But the influx has overwhelmed the city’s registration centres and humanitarian organisations, with migrants forced to sleep and live on the streets. Valérie Gauriat travelled to Brussels and brought back the story.
STAY WARM Europe is battling an expensive and crippling energy crisis, which winter is set to exacerbate. But not all citizens are feeling the cold – or the pinch of gas bills – in the same way. Euronews Green reveals the European countries with the best and worst insulated homes.
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IT'S IN THE NUMBERS
Young people in France aged between 18 to 25 years will be able to get condoms for free from next year in an effort to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), President Emmanuel Macron has announced. French health authorities estimate the rate of STDs across the country increased by about 30% in 2021, with a steep rise in chlamydia and gonorrhoea.
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EDITOR'S CHOICE
Is Poland becoming more authoritarian?
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Alarms are being sounded over creeping authoritarianism in Poland. A damning report published in November said the country’s democracy was faltering and that key institutions were “severely backsliding.” The findings released by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance indicate the government has eroded some of the fundamental rights and freedoms that underpin Poland’s political system since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Examples of this worrisome trend are the reduced independence of the Polish media and judiciary system, which has triggered a political rift between Warsaw and Brussels. Law enforcement is another area of concern: in October, police were criticised for detaining anti-fascist protestors at a nationalist rally, while not reacting to the illegal use of Nazi symbols by other demonstrators. Against this backdrop, Joshua Askew talks to experts and asks: Is Poland becoming more authoritarian?
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The Briefing: War & Peace (Special edition)
