Dubbed the “political Oscar”, the award will go to the Lithuanian president for her contribution to building unity in the European Union and economic stability.
"With the decision to award the Charlemagne Prize of Aachen 2013 to Dalia Grybauskaitė, the Board of Directors of the Society for the Conferring of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen pays tribute to one of the outstanding personalities in the Baltic region and to her exceptional endeavors for deeper integration in the European Union and for finding solutions for the current crisis," reads an explanatory statement published by the society.
The Charlemagne Prize will be conferred upon the Lithuanian president during a solemn ceremony at the Aachen Town Hall on May 9, the Day of Europe.
Among laureates of the award established by the people of Aachen in 1950 are Pole John Paul II, founders of the European Union – Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schuman, Britain's Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, the European Commission, King of Spain Juan Carlos, US President Bill Clinton, Czech humanist and president Vaclav Havel, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and others.
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| Marcel Philipp and Jurgen Linden met with Dalia Grybauskaitė |
Promoter of European economic standards
Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaitė made a significant contribution to bringing the Baltic Sea region closer to the European Union (EU) and economic development by European standards, says Jurgen Linden, speaker of the Board of Directors of the International Charlemagne Prize Foundation.
"Indeed, the state president is one of the most important leaders actually in the European Union. And not only leader within that union but above the leader of Lithuania to the union. That means to get the country closer and closer to this integration in this community," Linden told Vilnius journalists.
In his words, Grybauskaitė was a "very very successful as a commissioner between 2004 and 2008" when she served as a member of the European Commission (EC) in charge of the community's budget.
"Perhaps you remember that she reformed European budget and even European finances. She received also a prize in 2006 as the most successful commissioner of the year," said the representative of the organization that awarded the prize.
"Another point of view is that she has given a lot of impulses to the Baltic sea area and the Baltic region to approach to the European Union and second to develop European standards of economy. So we are really looking forward to her visit in Aachen," Linden said.
He refused to specify who nominated Grybauskaitė for the award, saying the information was confidential. In Linden's words, the panel usually picks the winner from about 20 candidates.
"Everybody has the possibility to name candidates, so people do. Citizens, politicians, people of the administration, institutions. We don't say who was the one who named a candidate. But I think it was this time coming out of the part of the jury," he added.
