marcelinoorejaAn award ceremony will be held on 9 May – Europe Day – at the Royal Monastery of Yuste, headquarters of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation

Mérida, 27 March 2017. Rosa Balas Torres, President of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation’s Executive Committee and Chief Executive of External Action for the Regional Government of Extremadura, and Juan Carlos Moreno Piñero, Director of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation, today announced the jury’s decision to award the eleventh edition of the Carlos V European Award to Spanish politician Marcelino Oreja Aguirre.

By granting him the award the jury wished to acknowledge “his lifelong contribution to the process of European construction and integration, something to which he has dedicated his efforts in the various posts he has occupied both in national and European organisations: including Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and European Commissioner. His contributions in the fields of academia and civil society have been equally active and fruitful. Also of note is his tireless work in promoting the concept of Europe and praising European values, especially those related to European cultural diversity and the protection of human rights”.

The President of the Executive Committee described Marcelino Oreja as “a committed Europeanist, and one of the most significant actors in the process of European integration”. His career history as a diplomat and politician reflects “that Europeanist vision unequivocally, something he kept up so brilliantly during his time as Secretary General of the Council of Europe and throughout his terms at the European Parliament and Commission”. Rosa Balas described Marcelino Oreja as a humanist who has always promoted the notion of Spain “as a constitutive part of Europe, and community integration as key to the future of our continent in a global society”.

In her speech, Balas Torres pointed out that this year marks 40 years since Marcelino Oreja, on behalf of Spain, sought membership to the European Communities, and signed Spain’s accession to the Council of Europe and European Convention on Human Rights.

Juan Carlos Moreno Piñero, Director of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation, showed his support for the award being granted to Marcelino Oreja, “one of the people who has contributed most to promoting the concept of Europe in Spain,
and Spain in Europe, and to praising European values and the process of European construction”. Oreja Aguirre is receiving recognition for his continued actions in support of Spain’s accession to what we now know as the European Union, a term established 25 years ago in the Maastricht Treaty. Marcelino Oreja was directly involved in drawing up the Treaty during his term as European Commissioner, and it was this that ascertained European citizenship as a key objective to bolster the protection of the rights and interests of citizens of member states, through the creation of Union citizenship.

The award is granted to a politician, academic, and writer who has published a multitude of articles and publications on European construction and integration, is Doctor Honoris Causa for the University of Seville and Zaragoza, and a speaker on European issues.

The European Academy of Yuste Foundation received 45 proposals from 99 organisations in 14 different European Union countries. The final number of eligible proposals was 36, and a total of 25 candidates were nominated for the eleventh edition of the Carlos V European Award.

Anniversaries

Coinciding with the award of the Carlos V European Award to Marcelino Oreja, this year sees several European commemorations marking events that have had a crucial impact on the lives of European citizens. These are: the 30th anniversary of the Erasmus programme; the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Europe; the 25th anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty; the 40th anniversary of Spain’s adhesion to the Council of Europe; and the 25th anniversary of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation.

Eleventh Carlos V European Award

This year we are celebrating the eleventh edition of the award, which demonstrates the Carlos V European Award’s established and solid grounding, reaffirms Extremadura’s commitment to the process of European construction and the values it promotes, and underlines the importance of initiatives such as this one, born from civil society, in support of the union and collaboration between European nations.

The award is granted by the European Academy of Yuste Foundation’s Board of Trustees, and proposed by a specially-selected jury composed of prestigious personalities from various European socio-cultural spheres, as well as members of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation itself and previous winners of the award. Among the members of the jury are Markku Markkula, President of the Committee of Regions of Europe; Javier Solana Madariaga, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy for the European Union and 2011 Carlos V European Award winner; Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament; Professor Sofia Corradi – Mamma Erasmus, former Scientific Director of the Rome office of the Standing Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities (CRUI) and Carlos V European Award winner; Alfonso María Dastis Quecedo, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation for the Spanish government; Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission and 1995 Carlos V European Award winner; Guillermo Fernández Vara, President of the Regional Government of Extremadura and President of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation; Pilar Blanco Morales, Councillor for Public Administration and Finance at the Regional Government of Extremadura; Blanca Martín Delgado, President of the Assembly of Extremadura; and Segundo Píriz Durán, Dean of the University of Extremadura.

The award will be presented in an official ceremony presided over by the Spanish royal family, on 9 May this year at the Royal Monastery of Yuste (Cáceres-Extremadura).

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