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Europeans ‘would like to thank’ the Nobel committee

Kai Ryssdal Oct 12, 2012
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Europeans ‘would like to thank’ the Nobel committee

Kai Ryssdal Oct 12, 2012
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So far, the Nobel committee has announced prizes in the categories of medicine, physics, chemistry and literature. The economics prize is announced Monday. But there was a bit of a surprise this morning with the Peace Prize. The winner is…the European Union.

You’re wondering what the winners of the prize are thinking? Us too. So we asked ’em. It’s part of our semi-regular series, What’s Up, Europe?

Sophie Pedder is the Paris bureau chief at The Economist. She says the win makes sense for Europe, especially when you consider that some generations still remember when Germany and France were at war. But she finds the timing a bit odd.

Meanwhile, in Thessaloniki, Greece, Mario Efthymiopoulos from Strategy International says he was surprised.

“As a European Union citizen, I would be very happy for my institution and the institutions that were created over the years,” says Efthymiopoulos. “But as a citizen of Greece where we feel the fiscal crisis in our guts, I would say I’m shocked.”

And in Madrid, Miguel-Anxo Murado thinks Spaniards are happy about the win. “We are very pro-European,” he says.

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