The EU as Nobel Peace Prize winner?

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the European Union. Seems an odd choice: in figuring out who will accept the prize “on behalf of the EU” – or should that be “on behalf of the citizens of the EU”? – we see how far the EU still has to go as an institution. Will it be Van Rompuy (president of the European Council), Barroso (President of the Commission), Schulz (President of the EU Parliament), or even Cyprus (currently holds rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, and still a divided country itself). I guess someone will check the Lisbon Treaty to see who picks up international prizes on behalf of us all.

The timing is interesting. At first I had the impression that Norway – sitting resolutely outide the EU – is giving us unionized Europeans the prize as a way of saying “sorry you people seem to be going through hard times just now with your Euro-difficulties, and all. Here’s something to cheer you up.” Sympathy, with perhaps a wee bit of schadenfreude thrown in.

Or are the Nobel Peace Committee making a deeper point? Are they saying – as I did in a blog on this site last year – that the rift between the economies of northern and southern Europe is a genuine conflict akin to that which developed into the US Civil War, that the EU’s peace mission is not yet over, and thus its member states and their citizens need to continue working together with peace as the goal?

Either way, makes more sense than giving the Prize to Kissinger or Obama.