The European Union was awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize for the 27-nation bloc's history of "advancement of peace and reconciliation," Friday. The award arrives in the midst a crippling debt crisis in the eurozone that has pitted one member country against another as its leaders seek a way out.
The nod to the EU's historic accomplishments—accompanied with a prize worth $1.2 million—is being viewed as a reminder of how the continent rebuilt and rebounded after two devastating world wars while it now works to balance competing visions on how to address economic strains throughout the bloc.
As Reuters explains:
The EU has transformed most of Europe "from a continent of wars to a continent of peace," Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said in announcing the award in Oslo.
"The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest," Jagland said. "The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU's most important result: the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights."
The timing of the award led some to question the Norwegian Nobel Committee's choice.
"The award could be a morale boost for the continent struggling with a debt crisis and trying to keep the union together,” Daily Rundown host Chuck Todd said Friday morning.
CNBC's Becky Quick called the timing of the award a "head-scratcher" considering the fate of Greece's continued place within the eurozone remains in a strained balance.
"The idea that this is bringing everybody together, sure during the good times when everybody was succeeding, yes it was bringing people together," Quick said. "But now we see things fraying, and fraying in a very bad way."
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To those who live on the other side of the pond from Europe this is actually a overwhelming win. You have to understand Norway stands outside of the EU and finds much of what goes on within the EU as anathema the idea that one could move towards a federal understanding of one`s nationhood within a European framework is like saying to an American you are not an American but part of a Trans-American Nationhood which incorporates South, Central America and Canada. I imagine in my own country the UK will be the most upset as we have in Government a Coalition which one party the Conservatives philosophically would take the UK out of Europe and the Liberal Democrats who see the EU as the major objective of federal integration. It is a little like having the Tea Party and the Green Party USA in government together if I have got that analogy wrong please forgive me. I would say it is like having Sarah Palin and Barney Frank in the same GOVT. The sad thing is I do not know what the left-leaning Party will make of it that is the Labour Party, I will admit I am a member personally i would suggest wallow in the fact that War in Europe has become a impossible reality. I am a Germophile enough to say that they have been the major movers and payers in establishing that war in europe will never happen that truly is deserving of the Peace Prize which I am as one of the few UK citizens will acknowledge, never again will my fellow countryman have to die to keep Europe free to realise that it was makes the EU deserving of the Peace Prize