Aachen, 27 May 2022 (TDI): The European Parliament announced the European Charlemagne Youth Prize winners of this year.

The Winners

The prize includes the first prize with the amount of €7,500, whilst the second and third include €5,000 and €2,500 respectively.

Firstly, the first prize went to ‘Orquestra Sem Fronteiras’ [Orchestra Without Borders] from Portugal as it promotes cross-border cooperation between Spain and Portugal.

It does so through the music of young talents living in the two countries alongside the purpose of reducing cultural and social inequalities.

Whereas the second prize went to the Czech ‘Politika (nejen) pro mladé’ [Politics (Not Only) for the Youth] project, which brings young politicians together from throughout the political spectrum to debate politics, democracy, and human rights.

Likewise, the project aims to strive for an active and informed young civil society. The third prize went to the German project ‘Ukrainian Vibes – European Public Sphere’, which is organized through Democracy International.

The project ran from April to October 2021 and brought people together from 36 countries for virtual discussions on democracy, development, and European integration.

At the same time, it highlighted the relations between the EU and Ukraine. Also, they published part of the proposals created on the COFOE platform.

European Charlemagne Youth Prize

The Prize is awarded in a joint manner by the European Parliament and the International Charlemagne Prize Foundation and is open to initiatives by young people aged between 16 and 30, who participate in projects that are promoting European and international understanding.

More than 4,650 projects have competed for the prize since 2008. It follows that every year European and national juries choose a project from each country of the European Union.

Thereby, on the 24th of May, 26 national winners were invited to the award ceremony in Aachen, Germany and the three European winners were announced.

Above all, the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen is a prize awarded for work done in the service of European unification and is named for Charlemagne, the Frankish king honored by his contemporaries as the ‘Father of Europe’.

Recent winners of the Prize include Klaus Iohannis (2020/21), António Guterres (2019), Emmanuel Macron (2018), Timothy Garton Ash (2017), and Pope Francis (2016).