Jean-Claude Juncker awarded European of the Year
By Lisbeth Kirk
Prime minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker last night in Brussels received the EV50 award of European of the year. The prize was given to Mr Juncker at a fashionable gala evening at the Palais d’Egmont in the heart of Brussels.
The winner was chosen by readers of the weekly newspaper, the European Voice, out of 50 nominees and awarded for securing a 'yes' vote from his citizens after voters in France and the Netherlands had rejected the EU constitution.
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Laurent Fabius, a leading French socialist politician and a key figure in the French no-campaign was also nominated, but did not receive a prize for his campaign.
Poland and France were the best scoring countries in the awards, taking two prizes each.
Aleksander Kwasniewski, outgoing president of Poland, was awarded the distinction of "Statesman of the Year", while Anna Marszalek, a reporter for the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, took the prize of "Journalist of the Year" for revealing corruption scandals at the highest level in Poland.
Carlos Ghosn, CEO of French car maker Renault was voted "Business Leader of the Year", while French Michel Rocard, Socialist MEP and former prime minister, won the title "MEP of the Year" for leading the charge against the software patents directive.
Mr Rocard said in his speech of thanks "You will discover that we were right", perhaps as a hint to Microsoft, sponsoring the awards and to the toastmaster of the event, former parliament president Pat Cox, who acted as advisor to the European Information and Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA) on the software bill.
Also another anti-software patents campaigner, Florian Muller, took a prize, winning the title of "Campaigner of the Year" for his successful campaign Nosoftwarepatents.com, which killed off the whole software patent proposal in the final vote in the European Parliament.
In total, ten awards were handed out. Dalia Grybauskaite, the Lithuanian iron lady in charge of the EU budget and a black belt in karate, is now also holding the title of "Commissioner of the Year".
Martti Ahtisaari, the former President of Finland, was voted "Diplomat of the Year" for mediating talks between the government and rebels in Indonesia, which finally resulted in a ceasefire after 30 years of conflict.
Cancer researcher Ian Tomlinson was awarded the title "Achiever of the year" for his Cancergenes project, which discovered a gene that can reveal a person’s disposition to certain types of cancer.
And finally Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine, was awarded the title of "Non-EU Citizen of the Year" for leading Ukraine’s Orange revolution.
However, the biggest applause in the 200-strong packed palace was assigned to the Somalia-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of the ten women on the nomination list.
Guarded 24 hours a day by bodyguards because of death threats, she continues her campaign against the oppression of women under Islam.
Each of the winners received a prize to be donated to a charity of their choice.