The European Parliament decided to award the Sakharov Prize – the EU's main award in the field of human rights – to "the brave people of Ukraine represented by President Zelenskiy, elected leaders and civil society". This was announced by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, on Wednesday.
According to her, all groups of the European Parliament reached a consensus on who should be awarded the Sakharov Prize.
In her speech, she emphasized that over the past nine months, Ukrainians have heroically defended not only themselves and their homeland, but also the whole of Europe.
"They risked their lives defending the values of Europe: freedom, democracy, the rule of law. There is no one more deserving of this award," she added.
LIVE | Announcement of the 2022 Sakharov Prize laureate@Europarl_EN @RobertaMetsola https://t.co/ILAWwqsnWB
— Roberta Metsola (@EP_President) October 19, 2022
In addition to the brave people of Ukraine, the current contenders for the Sakharov Prize were Julian Assange, one of the activists of the WikiLeaks organization, and the Colombian Truth Commission.
The award itself will be presented at a ceremony in Strasbourg on December 14.
The Sakharov Prize is the main award of the European Union in the field of human rights. Last year, it was awarded to the Russian opposition leader Oleksiy Navalny, in 2020 to representatives of the Belarusian opposition, and in 2018 to Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov.
