Nobel Peace Prize 2012: The European Union's Six Decades of Peacebuilding

This note covers the Nobel Peace Prize 2012: why the European Union won it, what six decades of European cooperation actually achieved, how old enemies such as Germany and France became partners, how the committee's reasoning unfolded from the press release and the award ceremony speech, why the decision was debated, and quick facts for exams.

What was the Nobel Peace Prize 2012 awarded for?

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2012 to the European Union "for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe". This is the exact wording the committee used, known as the official citation.

In plain words, the committee was saying that the European Union, as an organisation of countries working together, had spent more than sixty years turning former enemies into partners, helping new democracies take root, and protecting basic rights across the continent.

The prize did not go to an individual person this year but to an entire international organisation.

The official name of the award is the Nobel Peace Prize. It is one of the five original prizes mentioned in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will, and unlike the other Nobel prizes it is decided and presented in Oslo, Norway, rather than in Stockholm, Sweden, by the Norwegian Nobel Committee rather than a Swedish institution.

The 2012 prize was announced on 12 October 2012 and came with a prize amount of 8,000,000 Swedish kronor, shared on a 1/1 basis, meaning the whole sum went to the European Union as a single recipient rather than being divided among several laureates.

Who are the laureates?

Unlike most Nobel Peace Prizes, which go to one or more individuals, the 2012 prize was given to a single organisation: the European Union (EU).

It is useful to think of the EU not as a country but as a union of European states that share certain laws, institutions and markets.

The European Union

According to the Nobel Prize's own facts page, the European Union was founded in 1952. At the time of the award, it was the sole recipient, holding the full share of the prize (1/1).

Its "contribution" was not the work of a single scientist or writer but the collective result of decades of treaties, enlargements and policies among its member states.

The committee's citation credited the EU and its forerunner organisations with advancing peace and reconciliation, democracy, and human rights in Europe over more than six decades.

The press release explained that this work began with efforts right after the two world wars to bring former enemies, especially Germany and France, into lasting partnership, and continued through the fall of the Berlin Wall and into the Balkans.

Because the laureate is an organisation rather than a person, there is no single "born" date or birthplace in the usual sense; instead, the Nobel Prize's data lists its founding year as 1952, marking the point from which its contribution to European peace is counted.

What problem was Europe trying to solve?

To understand why an organisation could win a prize usually associated with peacemakers, campaigners or mediators, it helps to look at the situation in Europe after the Second World War.

The press release recalled that in the inter-war years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee had already tried to encourage reconciliation between Germany and France by giving the prize to figures working for that goal.

The underlying problem was stark: across barely seventy years, the two countries had fought three wars against each other.

The ceremony speech named them directly: the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 to 1871, then the First World War and the Second World War. Each conflict devastated both nations and drew in much of the rest of Europe.

The committee stated that the "dreadful suffering" of the Second World War showed the need for a completely new kind of Europe, one where economic and political cooperation would make further wars between old enemies effectively impossible.

This was the background against which the first steps towards European integration were taken: not simply ending one war, but trying to build structures that would stop future wars from starting in the first place, binding nations together through shared institutions rather than leaving them to face each other as rivals.

How did the European Union try to make war between old enemies unthinkable?

The ceremony speech traced the practical steps that turned this idea into reality. On 9 May 1950, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman presented plans for a Coal and Steel Community, placing the production of coal and steel, the main materials needed for weapons, under a joint authority shared by France and Germany.

Schuman's own words, quoted in the speech, captured the logic: "The solidarity in production thus established will make it plain that any war between France and Germany becomes not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible." By sharing control of the industries needed for armaments, the two countries removed the ability to rearm secretly against one another.

The next major step came with the Treaty of Rome, signed on 25 March 1957, which created the European Economic Community among six founding states: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

This widened cooperation from coal and steel into the whole economy, opening borders and pooling resources to "preserve and strengthen peace and liberty".

The committee's reasoning was that these were not just trade arrangements. By binding former enemies into one marketplace, with joint rules and shared courts, the EU made it far harder for any single country to prepare for war against its neighbours without the others noticing and acting together.

How did the European Union spread democracy and settle old conflicts?

Beyond reconciling Germany and France, the committee credited the EU with a second kind of peacebuilding: using the promise of membership to encourage countries to become and remain democracies.

The press release noted that Greece, Spain and Portugal became EU members during the 1980s, and that the "introduction of democracy was a condition for their membership".

The ceremony speech explained this mechanism as a kind of ladder that a country had to climb before joining:

1. A country had to build a system of government "founded on the principles of democracy", as the founding treaties required.
2. It had to accept the EU's legal conditions, including human rights protections written into its law.
3. Only then could it begin negotiations to join the union and gain access to its market and institutions.
4. Once inside, support schemes from richer members helped consolidate the new democracy, as happened for Greece, Portugal and Spain.

The fall of the Berlin Wall extended this same process eastwards. The press release said this event "made EU membership possible for several Central and Eastern European countries, thereby opening a new era in European history", largely ending the Cold War division between East and West and helping to settle "many ethnically-based national conflicts" in the region.

The committee also pointed to the Balkans, where the admission of Croatia as a member, talks with Montenegro, and candidate status for Serbia were all described as strengthening reconciliation after the wars that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.

It added that EU membership prospects had, over the past decade, "advanced democracy and human rights" in Turkey as well.

How did the work develop?

This timeline shows that the committee was not rewarding a single achievement but a long, continuing process.

The ceremony speech explicitly linked it back to the Peace Prizes given in the 1920s to French and German statesmen seeking reconciliation, prizes that failed to prevent war in the 1930s, suggesting the committee saw 2012 partly as recognition that the post-1950 approach had finally succeeded where earlier efforts had not.

It also acknowledged that the process was incomplete. The speech noted unresolved conflicts in the Balkans, mentioning that "the status of Kosovo is still not finally settled" and describing Bosnia-Herzegovina as a state that "hardly functions" because of vetoes between its population groups, showing the committee's hedged, qualified view of how far reconciliation had actually reached by 2012.

Why did the committee give the prize to an organisation during a financial crisis?

At the time of the award, the EU was, in the committee's own words, "undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest", a reference to the European financial crisis that had caused protests and hardship in several member states.

This made the choice unusual, since the EU was itself in the middle of the crisis the prize overlooked.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee explained that it wanted to focus on what it called the EU's "most important result": its role in building peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights, rather than on the economic troubles of the moment.

The committee described the EU's effect as helping to "transform most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace".

The ceremony speech went further, arguing that the political framework of the union was "more important now than ever" precisely because of the crisis, warning that without European cooperation the likely result would have been "new protectionism, new nationalism", echoing the conditions that had worsened the economic troubles of the 1930s.

The speech was careful to add a qualification: the committee said it was not gathered "in the belief that the EU is perfect", but in the belief that European countries needed shared institutions to solve problems together, through compromise, self-control and moderation, which it called "the principal needs of the 21st century".

Why does this prize matter?

The 2012 prize placed an international organisation, rather than an individual activist or mediator, at the centre of the Peace Prize's history.

It affirmed the idea that institutions built for economic cooperation, such as the original Coal and Steel Community, can serve a deeper purpose: making war between neighbouring states structurally difficult, not merely illegal.

The committee connected this to Alfred Nobel's own will, saying the EU's work represented "fraternity between nations" and a form of the "peace congresses" that Nobel had named as one of the criteria for the prize in 1895, directly tying a modern organisation back to the founder's original intentions.

The prize also drew attention to still-open questions that the committee itself raised: the unresolved status of Kosovo, the fragile functioning of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the long, uncertain path of countries such as Turkey seeking to combine EU membership hopes with domestic reform.

The committee's own account therefore mixed praise for past achievement with recognition of unfinished work.

For students of history and civics, the award is a useful case study in how regional cooperation between countries, rather than only treaties between individual leaders, can be presented as a tool for lasting peace, and in how a Nobel Peace Prize can go to an institution rather than a person.

How does this connect to what you study?

This prize links directly to topics in civics and political science about regional organisations, such as how groups of countries form unions, share institutions, and set membership conditions tied to democracy and rights.

It also connects to history lessons on the two world wars, since the committee repeatedly framed the EU's story as the long-term answer to the conflicts between Germany and France that caused both wars.

Students studying the structure of the United Nations and other international bodies can compare how the EU, as described in these sources, used economic interdependence, for instance shared control of coal and steel, as a tool for peace rather than relying only on diplomatic treaties or military alliances.

The debate the committee itself raised, about honouring an organisation during a financial crisis, and about unresolved issues such as Kosovo's status, is also a useful example for exam questions asking students to weigh an institution's achievements against its ongoing challenges, using only the stated reasons rather than personal opinion.

Quick facts for exams

The Nobel Peace Prize 2012 was awarded to the European Union for over six decades of contribution to peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

It was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee on 12 October 2012 and presented in Oslo on 10 December 2012, with Thorbjørn Jagland delivering the ceremony speech as committee chairman.

Unlike most Peace Prizes, this one went to a single organisation rather than a person, receiving the whole prize share (1/1) and the full prize amount of 8,000,000 Swedish kronor.

The citation praised the EU's role in reconciling former enemies such as Germany and France, spreading democracy to Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, and supporting peace efforts in the Balkans, while the committee also acknowledged ongoing economic difficulties and unresolved conflicts.

Note: Source. The prize facts in this note are from the Nobel Prize's official site, nobelprize.org.

Glossary

• Nobel Peace Prize — one of the original Nobel prizes, awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for work towards peace, reconciliation or human rights.
• European Union (EU) — a union of European countries sharing laws, institutions and a joint market, credited by the committee with decades of peacebuilding work.
• Reconciliation — the process of restoring friendly relations between groups or countries that were previously in conflict.
• Coal and Steel Community — the 1951 arrangement placing French and German coal and steel production under joint authority, named as the start of European integration.
• Treaty of Rome — the 1957 agreement signed by six states that created the European Economic Community.
• European Economic Community — the earlier organisation, formed in 1957, that later developed into the European Union.
• Citation — the official sentence the Nobel Committee publishes explaining exactly why a laureate won the prize.
• Norwegian Nobel Committee — the body, based in Oslo, that selects the Nobel Peace Prize laureate each year.
• Candidate status — a stage given to a country, such as Serbia, showing it is formally being considered for future EU membership.
• Balkans — the region of south-eastern Europe, including former Yugoslav states, mentioned as still undergoing reconciliation after its wars.
• Berlin Wall — the barrier dividing East and West Berlin until 1989, whose fall opened EU membership to Central and Eastern European states.
• Fraternity between nations — a phrase from Alfred Nobel's will, applied by the committee to describe the EU's cooperative work.
• Prize share — the fraction of a Nobel Prize awarded to each laureate; the EU received the full share, 1/1.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: The 2012 Peace Prize went to a person, as with most Peace Prizes. Correct: It went entirely to the European Union, an organisation, which received the whole prize share.
• Misconception: The EU was founded in 2012, the year of the award. Correct: The Nobel Prize's facts page lists the EU's founding year as 1952, long before the award.
• Misconception: The prize honoured the EU only for economic achievements. Correct: The citation specifically credits peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights, not economic growth.
• Misconception: The committee said the EU was free of problems in 2012. Correct: The speech explicitly said the committee was not gathered in the belief that the EU is perfect.
• Misconception: The reconciliation process began only after the Second World War. Correct: The committee noted it had already tried to encourage Franco-German reconciliation through Peace Prizes in the inter-war years, which later broke down.
• Misconception: All Balkan issues were described as fully resolved by 2012. Correct: The speech named unresolved problems, including the status of Kosovo and the functioning of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• Misconception: The Nobel Peace Prize is decided in Stockholm like the science prizes. Correct: It is decided and awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. Who received the Nobel Peace Prize 2012? [1 mark]

1. The European Union (EU) received the entire Nobel Peace Prize 2012, taking the full 1/1 share of the award.

Q2. In which year was the European Union founded, according to the Nobel Prize's records? [1 mark]

1. The Nobel Prize's facts page lists the European Union as founded in 1952.

Q3. State the exact citation for the Nobel Peace Prize 2012. [2 marks]

1. The citation reads: "for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe".

Q4. Explain how the Coal and Steel Community contributed to peace between France and Germany. [4 marks]

1. Robert Schuman proposed the Coal and Steel Community on 9 May 1950, placing French and German coal and steel production under joint authority.
2. Since these materials were essential for making weapons, sharing control over them made it harder for either country to secretly rearm against the other.
3. Schuman stated that this solidarity in production would make war between France and Germany "not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible".
4. The ceremony speech described this as the start of a reconciliation process that continued through the Treaty of Rome and later enlargements.

Q5. Describe the role democracy played in EU membership for Greece, Spain and Portugal. [4 marks]

1. The press release noted that in the 1980s, Greece, Spain and Portugal joined the EU, and that becoming a democracy was required before they could join.
2. Countries had to show their system of government was founded on democratic principles before negotiations could proceed.
3. Once admitted, support schemes from the union helped consolidate these new democracies, according to the facts page.
4. This shows how the prospect of membership, not force, was used as a tool to encourage and protect democratic government.

Q6. Why did the Norwegian Nobel Committee award the prize to the EU despite the financial crisis at the time? [5 marks]

1. The press release acknowledged that the EU was undergoing "grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest" when the prize was announced in 2012.
2. The committee said it wished to focus on what it saw as the EU's most important result, its contribution to peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights, rather than the economic situation.
3. The ceremony speech argued that the EU's political framework was more important during the crisis, since without European cooperation the likely outcome could have been new protectionism and nationalism.
4. The speech compared this risk to the inter-war years, when ordinary people paid for a financial crisis triggered by others, and warned against repeating that pattern.
5. The committee therefore presented the award partly as encouragement to maintain cooperation through the crisis rather than abandon shared institutions.

Q7. Discuss how the committee linked the Balkans to the reasons for the 2012 Peace Prize. [6 marks]

1. The press release pointed to the admission of Croatia as a member in the following year, the opening of membership negotiations with Montenegro, and candidate status granted to Serbia as steps strengthening reconciliation in the Balkans.
2. The ceremony speech recalled that five wars had been fought in the region in a few years after the fall of communism, including the massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in a single day.
3. It described Slovenia joining the EU in 2004 and Croatia becoming a member in 2013 as part of the same integration process applied elsewhere in Europe.
4. However, the speech also noted unresolved problems, stating that the status of Kosovo was still not finally settled and that Bosnia-Herzegovina was a state that hardly functioned due to vetoes between its population groups.
5. The committee argued that extending the process of European integration, making borders less absolute and reducing the importance of ethnic group membership, was the way to bring real peace rather than only an armistice to the region.

Q8. What phrase from Alfred Nobel's will did the committee use to describe the EU's work? [2 marks]

1. The committee said the EU's work represented "fraternity between nations" and amounted to a form of the "peace congresses" named in Nobel's 1895 will.

Key takeaways

• The Nobel Peace Prize 2012 went entirely to the European Union, not to an individual person.
• The citation credited over six decades of advancing peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.
• The Coal and Steel Community of 1951, proposed by Robert Schuman, began the reconciliation between France and Germany.
• The Treaty of Rome of 1957 created the European Economic Community among six founding states.
• Democracy was a required condition for Greece, Spain and Portugal to join the EU in the 1980s.
• The fall of the Berlin Wall opened EU membership to Central and Eastern European countries, ending the East-West divide.
• The committee linked progress in the Balkans, including Croatia's accession and Serbia's candidate status, to the same reconciliation process.
• The committee acknowledged the EU's economic difficulties in 2012 but focused the award on its peacebuilding record.
• Unresolved issues such as Kosovo's status and Bosnia-Herzegovina's functioning were noted even while the prize was being given.

Test yourself

Who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2012?

The European Union received the entire Nobel Peace Prize 2012, the full 1/1 share of the award.

When was the Nobel Peace Prize 2012 announced?

The prize was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee on 12 October 2012.

Who proposed the Coal and Steel Community, and when?

Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister, presented the plan on 9 May 1950.

Which countries joined the EU in the 1980s under the condition of democracy?

Greece joined in 1981, and Spain and Portugal joined in 1986, with democracy required for membership.

Which historical event opened EU membership to Central and Eastern Europe?

The fall of the Berlin Wall opened the way for several Central and Eastern European countries to join the EU.

Name one unresolved problem the committee mentioned in the Balkans.

The committee said the status of Kosovo was still not finally settled as of the 2012 award.

Who delivered the award ceremony speech for the 2012 Peace Prize?

Thorbjørn Jagland, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, delivered the speech in Oslo.

What phrase did Schuman use to describe war between France and Germany becoming impossible?

Schuman said such a war would become "not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible" through shared production.