Vision for Europe Award

The Vision for Europe Award is an honour that has been bestowed annually since 1995 by the non-profit Edmond Israel Foundation in "recognition of outstanding achievements in taking Europe into the future."[1]

Between 1995 and 2008, the award was presented to the recipient in a ceremony at the Edmond Israel Foundation building in Luxembourg City. Luxembourg's best-known sculptor Lucien Wercollier designed the statue presented to the recipients. The first Vision for Europe Award was given to Jacques Santer in 1995, the year he left his position as Prime Minister of Luxembourg to become President of the European Commission. The award honored his efforts to unite Europe into a single entity.

Since 2016, the Award is presented during the Prague European Summit. The statue is produced by the Czech glass manufacturer Preciosa.[2]

Recipients edit

Year Image Choice Notes
1995   Jacques Santer at the time President of the European Commission and former Prime Minister of Luxembourg
1996   Jean-Luc Dehaene Prime Minister of Belgium
1997   Helmut Kohl Chancellor of Germany
1998   Jean-Claude Juncker Prime Minister of Luxembourg
1999   Wim Duisenberg first president of the European Central Bank and formerly Minister of Finance for the Netherlands
2000   Árpád Göncz President of Hungary
2001 Not awarded
2002   Guy Verhofstadt Prime Minister of Belgium
2003   Javier Solana High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Secretary-General of both the Council of the European Union (EU) and the Western European Union (WEU) and former Secretary General of NATO.
2004 Not awarded
2005 Not awarded
2006   Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany
2007 Not awarded
2008   Jean-Claude Trichet President of the European Central Bank and former governor of the Banque de France
2016 Wolfgang Wessels[3] Professor & Jean Monnet Chair, University of Cologne.
2017   Timothy Garton Ash[2] Historian and professor of European Studies at Oxford University
2018   Emily O'Reilly[4][5] European Ombudsman

References edit

  1. ^ "Vision for Europe". Archived from the original on 21 January 2009. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Prague European Summit". preciosabeauty.com. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  3. ^ "Vision for Europe Award 2016". Institute of International Relations. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  4. ^ "Prague European Summit 2018 – Day 2 Summary" (PDF). praguesummit.eu. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  5. ^ "Vision for Europe Speech". ombudsman.europa.eu. 20 June 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2019.

External links edit

  • Vision for Europe website, [1]