Posted on 20 December 2017
An event celebrating the award ceremony of the Sakharov Prize 2017 was jointly organized by the Historical Archives of the EU and the European Parliament Liaison Office in Italy to highlight the importance of engaging young people in European politics.
Hans-Gert Pöttering, former President of the European Parliament and current chair of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, acted as a special guest at the event, which was moderated by Stefano Polli, vice-director of ANSA News Agency. One hundred and twenty high school students from Rome and Florence, who take part in the school programmes of the European Parliament’s Rome Representation and the Historical Archives of the European Union, also participated at the event.
Hans-Gert Pöttering said in Florence in relation to the European Union as a unique project of cooperation between states and nations: “Safeguarding this achievement, carrying it forward and shaping its future, is our moral and political responsibility towards present and future generations.”
After his speech, the students from Rome were given the chance to ask key questions about human rights, the European Union and the freedom of thought. Subsequently, Florentine students presented resolutions prepared during their participation in the educational programme at the Archives regarding important current crises in Europe, such as Brexit, migration and the rise of nationalism.
Finally, the Sakharov Prize ceremony was live-streamed from the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where the prize was awarded to the Democratic Opposition in Venezuela. Several members of Democratic Opposition are political prisoners in Venezuela, which is currently facing both a political and an economic crisis.
When the representatives of the Venezuelan Democratic Opposition received their awards and gave their emotional speeches, Carolina Garrido, a guest and close friend of Vanessa Ledezma, whose father, Mayor Antonio Ledezma of Caracas, is one of this year’s laureates, was moved to tears and speakers as well as members of the audience showed solidarity as they rushed to embrace her.
The European Parliament has awarded this prize every year since 1988, to individuals and organisations that defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. In regard to the Prize, Hans-Gert Pöttering said that we must “support those who fight selflessly and courageously for the rights of others […] as if we stop fighting for the rights of others, we will one day lose our own.”
Click here to view the video produced about the event by the European Parliament Information Office in Italy.