EU and the euro rewarded with Nobel Peace Prize "The test Europe is currently facing is real," he said. We will come out of this together, and stronger. The three EU presidents awkwardly collected a Nobel peace prize traditionally collected by one individual laureate to the sound of trumpet fanfares but only 20 - out of 27 - EU leaders showed up to share the glory. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, who was a commission official then an MEP before moving into Westminster politics, attended the ceremony after David Cameron declined to attend the lavish two-day celebrations surrounding the prize. Mr Clegg, who attended the Oslo ceremony on a day trip at "minimal cost," insisted that the peace prize was for ordinary people despite growing hostility to the EU and open questioning of Britain's future in the Union, both domestically and in Brussels. Today's prize is a tribute to the people of Europe, not an institution. For centuries, the idea of Europe and peace was a contradiction in terms," he said. Thorbjoern Jagland, the chairman of the Nobel committee which awarded the prize after the EU was nominated by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said Europe had gone from being ﾓa continent of war to becoming a continent of peaceﾔ. "In this process the EU has figured most prominently," he said, but added, "peace must not be taken for granted." Three previously peace prize laureates, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, criticised the award last week because the EU relies on "security based on military force and waging wars" rather than pacifism. Norwegian peace protesters outside the ceremony echoed the criticisms and highlighted recently tabled EU federalist demands, supported by France and Germany, for a European army. Also backing a federal Europe, Mr Barroso stressed that today's EU "is only a stage on the way to the organised world of the future."