European Union wins Nobel Peace Prize - Europe OSLO, Norway - The European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for its efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe, in the midst of the union's biggest crisis since its creation in the 1950s. The award was given to the 27-nation bloc because it had "for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe," Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. The President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz responded to the Norwegian Nobel Committee announcement on Twitter, saying that the "EU is an unique project that replaced war with peace, hate with solidarity." Deeply touched honoured that the EU has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Reconciliation is what the EU is about. It can serve as inspiration," he tweeted. Read more on the European Union's peacekeeping operations here April fools joke? Some in Europe greeted the announcement with derision. The Nobel committee is a little late for an April fool's joke. Twenty years ago this prize would have been sycophantic but maybe more justified. Today it is downright out of touch," Martin Callanan, the leader of the Eurosceptic Conservatives and Reformist Party in the European Parliament, told Reuters. "Presumably this prize is for the peace and harmony on the streets of Athens and Madrid," he added sarcastically, in reference to the EU-backed economic austerity programs that have prompted sometimes violent protest in parts of Europe. Thousands of Greeks protest Angela Merkel visit "The EU's policies have exacerbated the fallout of the financial crisis and led to social unrest that we haven't seen for a generation," Callanan said. Others, however, praised the decision. "This is great timing," professor Friedrich Heinemann, EU expert at the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim, Germany told NBC News. "I believe the Nobel Peace Prize is a helpful recognition for an institution that offers a solid framework for solutions to the present conflicts in Europe," he said. "The European Union has created a form of stability and peace in Europe, which also provides the basis for economic stability in Europe," he added.