Europees Parlement geeft Nobelprijs terug aan de mensen (en)

Congratulations! This morning you woke up a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The 2012 prize was presented to the EU in Oslo on Monday. The European Parliament believes the honour belongs to everyone, so on Wednesday morning it is holding a special ceremony in Strasbourg to symbolically hand over the prize to the people of Europe. EP i president Martin Schulz i said the EU came about thanks to its citizens: "You can't achieve something in a society when the people do not stand behind the project."

Speaking in Norway, president Schulz said: "When we look at the Coal and Steel Community, which laid the path towards the European Union, it was only possible because the citizens were sharing this engagement, because they were convinced by the idea behind it. Therefore this is a prize for those who made the European Union possible."

He said he hoped the prize would act as a wakeup call to decision makers and encourage them to correct some of the mistakes the EU is making at the moment. Schulz believes the EU has the potential to produce enormous benefits to its members and the world in general: "But only if we stick together and if we do not allow that we are divided in 27 pieces".

During a short ceremony on Wednesday president Schulz will symbolically pass on the peace prize to a group of Europeans invited to Strasbourg after they won an online competition.

The EU will donate the Nobel Prize money - which it has topped up to €2 million - to projects for children in war and conflict areas.