EU three Presidents attends the award of the Charlemagne Prize to Pope Francis

USPA NEWS - On Friday May 6 in the Vatican, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will attend the ceremony awarding the Charlemagne Prize to Pope Francis, together with European Parliament President Martin Schulz and European Council President Donald Tusk. The three Presidents will deliver a joint eulogy.

On the eve of the award ceremony, on Thursday May 5, President Juncker was part in a debate on the State of the Union, celebrated in the Horatii and Curiatii Room in the Capitolini Museum ““ the same room in which the Treaty of Rome was signed on March 25, 1957. Presidents Schulz and Tusk also participated, as the Italian Prime Minister Renzi. First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini also attend the award ceremony.

The Society for the Conferring of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen decided to award the 2016 Prize to Pope Francis for “his efforts to promote the European values of peace, tolerance, compassion and solidarity.“ The International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen is the oldest and best-known prize awarded for work done in the service of European unification.

The first Charlemagne Prize was awarded in 1950 to Richard Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, the founder of the Pan-European Movement. Other recipients of the Prize include Europe´s founding fathers, de Gasperi, Schuman, Monnet and Adenauer, as well as Sir Winston Churchill, Simone Veil, Vaclav Havel, Bill Clinton and Angela Merkel. President Juncker was awarded the Prize in 2006 and Presidents Tusk (2010) and Schulz (2015) are fellow laureates. Traditionally the award is given to the recipient on Ascension Day in a ceremony in the town hall of Aachen.