European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has won this year’s Charlemagne Prize, the continent’s top award for those promoting European values.
At the award ceremony in Aachen on Tuesday, the EU executive chief outlined the priorities for Europe over the upcoming years, emphasising the importance of securing peace through defence, advancing the EU’s enlargement, and safeguarding democracy while reinforcing Europe’s resilience.
“Dear friends, an independent Europe. I know that for some this is an uncomfortable message to hear. But at its core, this is about our freedom,” von der Leyen said in her acceptance speech.
“As the people of central and eastern Europe have long known, personal liberty is possible only when there is collective independence,” she added.
Shared responsibility to uphold and protect European values
Several heads of state and former laureates participated in the ceremony, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Spain’s King Felipe VI, Prime Minister of Malta Robert Abela and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Among elected politicians in attendance, only Merz took the floor during the ceremony.
Speaking about the most pressing geopolitical issues facing the European continent, Merz stated that Germany is “ready and prepared to do its part,” in close coordination with other European countries, to address the challenges ahead.
“We are ready and prepared to do our part in supporting Ukraine, working closely with our European neighbours,” Merz said.
“We will continue supporting Ukraine with everything we have, militarily, politically, and economically. Just yesterday, President Zelenskyy and I reinforced this commitment in Berlin,” he added.
He further emphasised that Europe was founded to serve its people and that his generation, the first to grow up in a Europe of freedom, peace, and prosperity, inherited this legacy from the founding fathers, underscoring a shared responsibility to uphold and protect these values for the future.
‘Celebration of political survival’
Meanwhile, some analysts have felt that there were better candidates for the award than the European Commission chief, given her role in the 27-member bloc’s institutions.
“If the point of the Charlemagne Prize is to recognise innovative thinking and action at unprecedented geopolitical times for the continent, it should reward imaginative and courageous individuals, not institutional figures such as von der Leyen,” Alberto Alemanno, EU law professor at HEC Paris, told Euronews.
“From this perspective, the conferral of the prize to von der Leyen appears more a celebration of her political survival … than a recognition of a contribution to EU integration,” he added.
The International Charlemagne Prize has been awarded since 1950 to individuals or institutions for their services to Europe and the continent’s unity.
In recent years, the prize has been awarded to high-level politicians, activists and communities, including the former Chief Rabbi of Moscow and president of the Conference of European Rabbis Pinchas Goldschmidt and the Jewish communities in Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people, Belarusian opposition leaders Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Maria Kalesnikava and Veronika Tsepkalo, and the former president of Romania Klaus Iohannis.
