There are many
things you can say about Nobel peace prize and its awarding committee, among
them would be that they sure know how to pick their winners. From awarding the
peace prize to Henry Kissinger despite his well-documented involvement at the
tail end of the Vietnam War to Barack Obama winning the award in the midst of
two protracted wars, the noble peace prize has a history of awarding public
figures with a lot of blood on their hands.
However one
of its strangest awards to date was giving the Nobel Peace Prize to the
European Union. While it’s not unusual for political organisations to win the
prize such as Amnesty International and the UN, it is quite strange that a
political project has won in what is probably its most trying period.
Recent years
may have tested the EU as political and economic project, but what is not up
for debate is the EU is the most successful political project in the history of
international politics. For centuries Europe had been rife with “divisions,
tensions and conflicts” borne out of competition and imperial ambition[1].
These two
factors made sure Europe would remain a Hobbesian nightmare halfway through the
20th century as the continent experienced two world wars and several
failed attempts at diplomacy in-between, notably with the League of Nations.
However, Influenced by the brutality and death that characterised the Second
World War, leaders across Europe realised the need for a united Europe ensuring
that war will never break out in Europe ever again.
The fact
that the peace has held in Europe for so long after centuries of conflict and
competition owes much to the process of integration between the economies of EU
member states and laws strengthening human rights legislation. The success of
the EU has been that it has meant greater cooperation between nations in
Europe, particularly the big three, Britain, France and Germany, key players in
both world wars. In recent years the EU has expanded eastward with the
accession of former soviet states to full membership.
The Euro was
seen by supporters as the most audacious statement of intent by EU member
states to unify Europe by tying their fates together by establishing the
European Monetary Union (EMU). While the language of the EMU was economic, it
was motivated purely by politics as the EMU remarkably took many of the controls traditionally handled by
member states and put them in the hands of technocrats in Brussels. This was
accomplished through the rather strict monetary requirements aspiring EMU
members had to meet to join the single currency[2].
While the
idea of uniting Europe in the interest of peace and prosperity has been a
success, the undemocratic nature of the political project has been the source
of bickering among member states and the economic stagnation of many members of
the EMU, Greece being the most prominent example
The EU’s
response to the Eurozone crisis has been poor to say the least as the troika of
the EU, IMF and ECB has forced upon Greece’s strict austerity measures and
heavily conditioned bailouts in an attempt to keep Greece in the EMU despite
default being a painful but viable option. The fact that the EU has partnered
with the IMF leads to questions of it lack of accountability due to the IMF’s
use of notorious structural adjustment programs recommended to countries of the
global south.
These polices
that have caused instability in many
nations in the global south have now been imposed on Greece and has led to frequent,
often violent protest by ordinary Greek citizens against strict austerity
measures used by its government and the EU itself.
The search for consensus by
EU leaders from EU member states has led to creation of the fiscal pact, which
will impose tough fiscal measures to make sure its members keep financially
sound budgets, mostly through measures that have failed miserably in Greece.On this
evidence it is quite strange that the Nobel peace prize has been awarded to the
EU this year as its polices have caused instability in Greece and it
ideological preference for an united Europe has weakened significantly it
member states ability to react to economic and political crisis
In
conclusion, the EU is the most successful political project in the history of
international politics and should be recognised for playing a large role in why
there has been no war in Europe from Second World War onwards. However, to
award the EU the Nobel Peace Prize when its policies have caused instability in
Greece and threatened the future of the Eurozone is bizarre to say the least
