Brussels, October 12, 2012

Nobel Peace Prize should make EU reconsider its own role as global actor!

"The decision by the Oslo committee to honour the EU for its contribution to 60 years of peace and reconciliation in Europe with the Nobel Peace Prize came unexpectedly. I am glad that this award commemorates the positive values ​​of the EU,  which are all too forgotten in the current crisis," said GUE/NGL President Gabi Zimmer.

"We should take this decision as a hint that the founding ideas of peace, reconciliation and partnership development must return to the center of European politics. The current crisis shows that the EU must not be reduced to a free market, which is increasingly turning out to be an attack on citizens´ democratic and social rights," she continued.

"The EU must become a community driven by social progress, which is aware of its responsibility for non-violent and inclusive solutions to global problems, based on solidarity. Therefore, its present trend which is predominantly oriented to the interests of trade, foreign and security policy has to be corrected, The fight against hunger, poverty and social exclusion, climate change and the unjust international economic order must be put at the top of the political agenda if the EU really wants to do justice to the Nobel Peace Prize," Zimmer concluded.