The judges of the Norwegian Nobel Committee have sometimes displayed an unusual sense of timing when it comes to the award of the annual Peace Prize. In 2009, the committee caused controversy when it awarded the honour to Barack Obama after he had been less than a year in office. Its decision to award the Peace Prize to the EU provokes a similar debate about whether this is the right moment. Today the EU is mired in crisis, with economic and social turmoil raging through Greece and Spain, much of it inflamed by the eurozone’s debt problems. The immediate reaction of many to this award will therefore be one of surprise. The image that the EU projects today is hardly one of “peace”.
在衡量年度諾貝爾和平獎時，挪威諾貝爾委員會(Norwegian Nobel Committee)的委員們表現出的時間感，有時顯得不太尋常。2009年該委員把年度和平獎頒給了巴拉克?奧巴馬(Barack Obama)，當時他就任美國總統還不到一年，結果引發了爭議。今年它把和平獎頒給歐盟(EU)，引發了時機選擇是否得當的類似辯論。歐盟目前正陷入危機不能自拔，經濟和社會動蕩席卷希臘和西班牙兩國，大部分國家都受到歐元區債務問題的困擾。所以，很多人當即表示，歐盟獲得諾貝爾和平獎多少有些出人意料。歐盟今天的形象很難說是“和平”。