COMUNICACIÓN

Coinciding with Europe Day, former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and former president of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, will receive the Carlos V European Award next Friday, 9 May, at 11:30 a.m. at the Monastery of San Jerónimo de Yuste during a solemn ceremony presided over by His Majesty King Felipe VI, honorary president of the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation. (07/05/2025)

The award ceremony will be attended by the president of the Regional Government of Extremadura, María Guardiola; the executive vice-president of the European Commission for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera; the minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, Óscar López; the president of the Supreme Court and the General Council of the Judiciary of Spain, Isabel Perelló Doménech; former prime ministers of Spain Mariano Rajoy and Felipe González, the latter also a recipient of the Carlos V European Award in 2000; Javier Solana and Marcelino Oreja, who received the award in 2011 and 2017, respectively —the latter also a member of the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste; the secretary-general of the Organisation of Ibero-American States, Mariano Jabonero; and the deputy secretary-general of the Ibero-American General Secretariat, José Frederico Ludovice.

Other members of the Academy who will accompany the awardee include Abram de Swaan, Ramón Jáuregui, Monica Luisa Macovei, and Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra. Also, in attendance will be around twenty diplomatic representatives from European and Ibero-American embassies, including those of Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Romania, as well as the Spanish ambassador to Portugal.

It is worth noting that the Carlos V European Award marks its 30^th anniversary this year, having been first presented to Jacques Delors on 6 June 1995. Josep Borrell is the fourth Spaniard to receive the award.

The jury for this edition recognised Borrell “for his career, defence of peace, democracy, and European values, and his contribution to European integration and the advancement of the European Union’s external action, contributing to strengthening the Union’s role and leadership in the world during particularly delicate times”. According to the jury, Borrell responded firmly and decisively to the war triggered in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; they also commended his commitment to multilateralism in the face of today’s major global challenges, which has fostered the development of key strategic alliances that strengthen the EU’s relations with Latin America and the Caribbean.

The jury, chaired by the president of the Regional Government of Extremadura, María Guardiola Martín, included, among others, the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola; the minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation and first vice-president of Yuste Foundation’s Board of Trustees, José Manuel Albares; former prime ministers of Spain José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy; the director of the Royal Academy of History of Spain and member of the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste, Carmen Iglesias; and the rector of the University of Extremadura, Pedro Fernández.

The award ceremony for the 18^th Carlos V European Award is held in collaboration with Patrimonio Nacional and the Regional Government of Extremadura, and enjoys the institutional backing of the European Parliament. It is also supported by Alimentos de Extremadura, Extremadura Avante, Iberdrola, Telefónica and Canal Extremadura, which will broadcast the event live online and via satellite.

Carlos V European Award

With this award, Yuste Foundation seeks to recognise the work of individuals, organisations, projects or initiatives that have contributed to the broader understanding and enhancement of Europe’s cultural, social, scientific and historical values, as well as to the process of European integration and construction.

The recipients of the award to date are: Jacques Delors (1995); Wilfried Martens (1998); Felipe González (2000); Mikhail Gorbachev (2002); Jorge Sampaio (2004); Helmut Kohl (2006); Simone Veil (2008); Javier Solana (2011); José Manuel Durão Barroso (2014); Sofia Corradi (2016); Marcelino Oreja Aguirre (2017); Antonio Tajani (2018); the project “Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe” (2019); Angela Merkel (2021); the European Disability Forum (2022); António Guterres (2023); and Mario Draghi (2024).

Carlos V European Award Research and Mobility Grants for European Studies

In connection with the Carlos V European Award, Yuste Foundation offers ten Research and Mobility Grants for European Studies aimed at researchers from across Europe who are currently working on a doctoral thesis in any discipline within the humanities or social sciences.

The Carlos V European Award Grants focus on European history, memory and integration, based on the topic chosen by the awardee for each edition, and approached from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Selected researchers become part of Yuste’s Euro-Ibero-American Alumni Network, which aims to facilitate the exchange of projects and information among researchers specialising in European studies who have been recipients of the Carlos V European Award Grants.

Yuste’s Alumni Network spans leading universities, institutions and research centres around the world. It currently includes over one hundred researchers from countries such as Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Cyprus, Cuba, Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Russia.