'In this forever': Sweden cuts back on lavish Nobel awards ceremony Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, left, European Council President Herman van Rompuy and European Parliament President Martin Schulz, seen here on Sunday, will receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the European Union in Oslo on Monday. STOCKHOLM -- With more than 1,200 guests and 40 chefs, Sweden holds its annual Nobel awards ceremony on Monday hoping a year of cost-cutting will not be noticed by the laureates, royals or the Who's Who of Sweden attending the lavish dinner. The ceremony -- scheduled to be webcast at 6:50 a.m. ET -- tops a week of events in Stockholm for the winners of the literature, physics, chemistry, medicine and economics prizes that see Sweden briefly enjoying the kind of extravagance usually associated with previous centuries. But this year the prize money has been cut by a fifth, contracts with suppliers have been renegotiated and even the number of chauffeur-driven cars for Nobel winners and their guests has been reduced. Two Americans win Nobel for work on matching different economic agents Some wonder whether guests will perceive any austerity in the week's events -- which last year cost around $3 million and usually feature Sweden's best cooks, designers and musicians, as well as thousands of flowers flown in from Italy. "There have been some cuts," Nobel Foundation Executive Director Lars Heikensten told reporters, but refusing to give any details. You will not notice them. For more than a century, the foundation has managed the roughly $450 million capital that forms the base for the awards, donated in the will of dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel. But in recent years returns have suffered amid the global crisis. "We are in this forever and we should safeguard it (the prize)," said Heikensten, a former Swedish central bank chief known for reducing staff during his tenure. The awards are now worth $1.2 million each, down from around $1.5 million in recent years. Strict dress, behavior codes Still, Monday evening's festivities at Stockholm's City Hall -- itself decorated with 24 pounds of gold leaf -- are unlikely to be spartan. Details of the menu are only revealed minutes before the food is served, but guests at the event will eat from some 7,000 pieces of porcelain using 10,000 items of silverware and drink from 5,400 glasses. Space is so tight guests are asked to avoid going to the toilet between courses to avoid jams in the aisle. The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU was met with confusion among those who have witnessed Europe's economic crisis, and deep unrest. The strict dress code -- white tie and tails for men and gowns for women -- is complemented by a similarly strict code of behavior. Toasting, for example, is done Swedish style: raise your glass, look your table companions in the eyes, swing the glass in the air ever so slightly -- no clinking -- sip and repeat eye contact before setting the glass down. The formality is in stark contrast to neighboring Norway where pop-princess Kylie Minogue will perform at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, a day after the European Union is handed this year's Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo. The EU's win raised a few eyebrows when announced in October. Former Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu said last week that the EU did not deserve the award, and on Sunday around 1,000 members of left-wing and human-rights groups marched through the streets of Oslo in protest, saying the EU was not a rightful beneficiary under the terms Alfred Nobel laid down in his will in 1895. "Alfred Nobel said that the prize should be given to those who worked for disarmament," said Elsa-Britt Enger, 70, a representative of Grandmothers for Peace. The EU doesn't do that. It is one of the biggest weapons producers in the world.