Nobel bailout? European Union wins 2012 Peace Prize

Storm of debate erupts over EU peace prize win

The EU enthusiastically welcomed the announcement, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling the decision “wonderful,” and vowing to press for closer integration in the EU. "The fact that the Nobel Committee has honored this idea is both a spur and an obligation, also for me in a very personal way," she told reporters.

Martin Schulz, president of the EU Parliament said he was “deeply touched and honored” by the prize. “The EU is a unique project that replaced war with peace, hate with solidarity.”

“Overwhelming emotion for awarding of Nobel Prize to EU,” he wrote on his twitter account.

The news also sparked debate and criticism in the EU and elsewhere. Nigel Farage, head of Britain's euro-skeptic UK Independence Party said the move was “an absolute disgrace. I think it brings the Nobel Prize into total disrepute,” the AP reported.

The leader of Norway’s main anti-EU organization, Heming Olaussen, described the prize as “absurd” in an interview with NRK.

RT’s Max Keiser expressed outrage, describing the Nobel Peace Prize as being given to “a technocratic monstrosity.”

Source and full story: Russia Today, 12 Oct 2012