Posted on 27 September 2017
An unprecedented number of 150 participants joined European Citizen’s Prize 2017 ceremony at the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) on Friday 22 September 2017, in Florence.
At the ceremony four Italian winners, the Opera Immacolata Concezione Onlus; Don Virginio Rigoldi; the Sicilian Fisherman of Mazara del Vallo; and #vorreiprendereiltreno Onlus, were honored for their exceptional achievements.
The national ceremony, which honours Italian recipients of the European Parliament’s annual award, is organized by the Information Office of the European Parliament in Italy, and hosted by the HAEU since 2014.
“I believe this Prize represents the true essence of the European Parliament and I think through events like this one we need to cultivate the principle of European citizenship, which still struggles to catch on,” says Michela Giuffrida, who is a Member of the European Parliament and awarded the prizes on Friday.
The European Citizen's Prize was launched by the European Parliament in 2008 to recognise exceptional achievements by European citizens: the prize is awarded to individuals or groups for their outstanding contributions to either facilitating cross-border cooperation within the EU or promoting better mutual understanding and closer integration between citizens and member states. The Prize is also awarded for day-to-day activities reflecting the values enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
“I really felt great at the event. In Italy we tend to think that everything goes bad here and much better in any other country, whilst actually all countries have their pros and cons. So we understand this as an occasion to have a look at the good initiatives and then bring them home,” says Iacopo Melio, one of the four honorees at this year’s event.
Iacopo Melio, launched #Vorreiprendereiltreno to advocate for the rights of disabled people. His project aims to raise disability awareness by taking a light-hearted look at important issues related to disability, promotes a culture of inclusion and accessibility, and carries out projects to dismantle architectural barriers, which hinder the free movement of disabled people.
He hopes that winning this prize will give his cause more support. “We will keep in contact and have meetings with Hon. Benifei (Brando Benifei), the MEP that nominated me for the Prize. We will prepare our suggestions and ideas to bring them to the European Parliament. We have high hopes.”
Another winner of this year’s prize was the Opera Immacolata Concezione Onlus Foundation, which has been providing accommodation for frail people for over 60 years. Don Virginio Rigoldi, chaplain of the ‘Cesare Beccaria’ was recognized for his life’s work dedicated to young people in difficulty in regards to his work with juvenile offenders. Finally, the Pescatori Siciliani di Mazara Del Vallo are fishermen who were honored for their life-saving efforts on behalf of thousands of migrants found drifting at sea in the waters around Sicily over the last several years.
Two school groups also attended the event. Students of the class 2B of the linguistic high school Gobetti-Volta of Florence and winners of the project First Play performed a theatrical presentation and the class 5D of the Institute "Elsa Morante" of Florence was invited as winner of the 2016/17 competition of the Historical Archives of the European Union “Un nuovo Trattato per l’Europa".
Annamaria Gabellini, Head Teacher at Elsa Morante, says: “The ceremony was incredibly nice. The presence of young people holds a lot of significance in this type of initiatives. I’d say more: if their participation were higher the outputs would be very interesting, in my opinion, since events like this one have a strong repercussion in them.”
Currently similar national ceremonies are taking place in the different EU countries of origin of the winners. On 11-12 October 2017 a European ceremony for all 50 prize recipients from 28 EU countries will take place in Brussels.
More on the European Citizen’s Prize