text: For years, the European Union has been on the list of Nobel Peace Prize candidates. The decision to award the 2012 prize to the bloc is a tribute to the EU's international reconciliation work, says DW's Bernd Riegert. 
   
   Who did the Nobel Prize committee actually call to inform the European Union it won this year's Peace Prize? The European Commission, European Council President Herman van Rompuy or President of the European Parliament Martin Schultz? Europe still does not have a single telephone number. Many politicians outside of Europe do not understand that, but the variety is one of the EU's strengths that were honored by the award. 
   
   The supranational group of states, in which sovereign national governments communalize some of their powers, is a unique body. The European Parliament is also unique in that representatives from all 27 member states have a nearly equal ability to influence legislation. Citizens of the EU can move among and live in any of the other member states, and the internal market provides companies with access to a massive market and the opportunities it can offer. And still, national governments take the lead in the Council of the European Union, where a constant conflict exists between national and European interests. 
   
   The European Union is a peace project. People who talk and trade with each other do not shoot each other. This truism of international politics from the 1950s was the cornerstone for the foundation of the European Economic Community. 
   
   Europeans, initially only Western Europeans, learned the right lessons from the catastrophes of two world wars. That was the view expressed by renowned political scientist and Europe expert Werner Weidenfeld in his book on European integration who said of the EU, "Looking at its centuries of history, this historic achievement cannot be valued highly enough." 
   
   The European Union today has 27 member states, and eight more countries, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Iceland and Turkey, have taken at least the initial steps to joining the bloc. Historically, Europeans have achieved an enormous feat of integration. After starting with just six founding members in Western and Southern Europe, the bloc currently comprises nearly all European countries. The union has integrated the former military dictatorships in Spain, Portugal and Greece as well as the former communist states of central and eastern Europe. Its current enlargement project aims to include the fragile western Balkans. 
   
   Its greatest achievement, however, certainly remains uniting Germany and its former enemies. Who would have thought that Germany would emerge from the ruins of World War II and become one of the most important countries in the European Union? In the current debt crisis, Germany has been forced to take on a leadership role due to its economic strength. 
   
   Even as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was announced, the financial and sovereign debt crisis poses one of the most serious predicaments of the European Union's history, according to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. But crisis has been a constant companion for Europeans, and so far the EU has come out of each crisis stronger than before. 
   
   Critics often accuse the European Union of being too bureaucratic, too undemocratic and a faceless beast. It is true that the decision-making process can be complicated and sometimes non-transparent. But, most of the time, the laws that are enacted support integration. And those who are unhappy with a decision made by the European Union have a structured way to petition for legal redress. In this regard, the European Court of Justice is a globally unique institution. 
   
   It is this decades-long work of the European Union that the Nobel Committee recognized. But who are the actual winners? The four presidents of the EU's institutions, the Council, Parliament, Commission or the Euro Group? 
   
   Or is it not all Europeans, all the citizens of the European Union who each are a prize winner? After all, they are the ones who - in the end - had to support integration, reforms, enlargement as well as bear the all costs incurred. 
   
   Many acts that our grandparents would never have dreamed possible are today regarded as simple facts of life. Europe is normality. Europe lives despite its differences: diversity in unity. Today, we are all Europeans. ||||| In what may be the most bizarre decision in the history of the award, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the European Union. All 27 nations and 500 million citizens. The Nobel committee cited the EU's contributions to "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights" that have essentially kept the continent from tearing itself apart, the way it has so many times up to and including World War II. 
   
   In the long run, the decision certainly makes sense, as Europe is currently enjoying one of its longest eras of peace and stability since the Union was first born in 1952. After the two nations fought three wars in the span of 70 years, now "war between Germany and France is unthinkable." However, as many people are pointing out, awarding the prize to the EU in 2012 seems odd, when the Union itself is being threatened by economic turmoil and the currency union shared by most of its members appears to be a massive mistake. Given the current money problems, the prize of $1.2 million almost seems like mockery, though some are interpreting the decision as a giant pep talk for a continent that sorely needs a reminder of what it can accomplish. 
   
   Giving the Prize to an organization is also unusual, but not unprecedented . Something called the International Peace Bureau won all the way back in 1910 and other past recipients include the International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and UNICEF. However, the 2012 award is likely to go down as one of the more head-scratching choices, like the awards for Yasser Arafat, Henry Kissinger, the International Atomic Energy Agency (after the the U.S. had already gone to war in Iraq), and Barack Obama, who won after less than a year in office as President. 
   
   In one final surprise, the decision was actually leaked and reported early by Norway's NRK public radio. Norway, where the Nobel Prize was born, is not even in the EU and has twice rejected appeals to join. 
   
   Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at dbennett at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. 
   
   Dashiell Bennett
target: – The Nobel committee has made some strange choices over the years, but awarding its peace prize to the European Union "may be the most bizarre decision in the history of the award," writes Dashiell Bennett at the Atlantic. So naturally, it's got people talking. Here's what they're saying. Bennett thinks the decision makes sense in the long run. "However, as many people are pointing out, awarding the prize to the EU in 2012 seems odd," given the economic and societal turmoil plaguing it. The award "is a classic example of an organization jumping the shark. Quite how anyone could suggest this with a straight face I am not sure," writes Tim Worstall, a self-proclaimed "extremist" against the EU, in Forbes. He points out that it's bizarre to praise an undemocratic organization for promoting democracy, and says the continent's peace is more NATO's doing than the EU's. "Who did the Nobel Prize committee actually call to inform the European Union it won?" wonders Bernd Rigert at Deutsche Welle. Still, he thinks the organization is a "worthy" winner. "The European Union is a peace project," he argues. "People who talk and trade with each other do not shoot each other." "In the broad scheme of things, the EU has been a force for good and it seemed to be in need of a pep talk," agrees Matthew Yglesias at Slate. But there's an elephant in the room: Norway itself isn't part of the EU, and "they've built an amazingly free and prosperous (albeit small society for themselves." Rich and natural resources and with a responsive democracy, it wants no part of the bureaucracy it's praising. For more reactions, see our original post on the award.