OSLO  - Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union is “unlawful” since the bloc is not a “champion of peace” as defined by the will of founder Alfred Nobel, the International Peace Bureau claimed on Monday.
In an open letter to Sweden’s Nobel Foundation, the peace network called for this year’s 8 million kronor-prize (932,000 euros, $1.19 million) to be withheld, a demand that was immediately rejected by the Norwegian committee tasked with picking the recipient.
“The European Union ... clearly is not one of ‘the champions of peace’ Alfred Nobel had in mind and described in his will,” the peace federation wrote.
The Swedish industrialist and philanthropist, who died in 1896, said in his will that the award should go to the “person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”. The International Peace Bureau pointed out that the EU “is not seeking to realise a demilitarisation of international relations.”