Aachen Charlemagne Prize 2023 goes to Volodymyr Zelenskyj and the Ukrainians

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy

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IMAGO/Alexander Rozhenyuk/Ukrainian Pr/ IMAGO/ZUMA Wire

The Charlemagne Prize 2023 goes to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people.

This was announced by the Charlemagne Prize Directorate and the city of Aachen on Friday.

The reason given was that the Ukrainian people under Zelenskyy's leadership not only defended the sovereignty of their country and the lives of its citizens, "but also Europe and European values".

The award emphasizes that Ukraine is part of Europe.

The population and government officials deserved "the encouragement" "to conduct accession negotiations with the European Union quickly."

The Governing Board praised Zelenskyy as "a support and role model for his people" in Russia's war against Ukraine.

For the Ukrainian people, he is not only president and commander-in-chief of the army, but also "motivator, communicator, the motor and the link between Ukraine and the large phalanx of supporters".

Many prominent award winners

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Since 1950, the Charlemagne Prize has been awarded to personalities and institutions who have rendered services to European unification in leading positions.

The most prominent recipients include Spain's longtime King Juan Carlos (1982), former US President Bill Clinton (2000) and then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU, 2008), and France's current President Emmanuel Macron (2018).

The then Chancellor Helmut Kohl (CDU) accepted the prize in 1988 together with France's former President François Mitterrand.

In 2004, the then Pope John Paul II received an extraordinary Charlemagne Prize, which was awarded in Rome.

The Belarusian opposition politicians Svetlana Tichanovskaya, Weronika Zepkalo and Maria Kalesnikava were awarded the Charlemagne Prize for 2022.

The Ukrainian people were only awarded the prestigious Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

Three Ukrainians who are committed to civil society accepted the award there on behalf of their compatriots.

Since February 24, Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine, which is fighting for its existence with Western weapons.

Discussions about the »special Charlemagne Prize« for Selenskyj and Ukrainians beforehand

How exactly the Charlemagne Prize will be presented in 2023 is still unclear.

Already at the Charlemagne Prize 2022 there was a discussion about whether Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people should get a "special Charlemagne Prize".

A group of MEPs suggested that at the time.

The EU states officially named Ukraine as a candidate for EU membership in June.

However, accession negotiations are only to begin once the reform requirements have been met.

sol/dpa/AFP