The Emperor-Maximilian-Prize for European Service at the Regional and Local Level, is a European Prize in the field of European local and regional politics, awarded by the City of

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

and the Region of

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

(

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Criteria for submissions

Submitted projects should: have an innovative focus; pursue new approaches or organisational methods; and include an assessment of the effects and developments of the project objectives, or the expected effects. Decisive here are the diverse aspects of European integration. Critical criteria include: the effectiveness of the project; sustainability and creativity; and the focus on motivating other target groups to engage independently with Europe.

Awarding

The Emperor-Maximilian-Prize will be awarded every two years starting in 2019. The prize consists of a certificate, a medal (1509 Emperor Maximilian I medallion) and a cash prize in the amount of € 10,000. The cash prize is earmarked for the awarded project.
In 2019, the project "Rückenwind – Solidarity with the forgotten corners" was honoured for its European service at regional and local level.

Emperor-Maximilian-Prize 2021

In 2021, the motto of the Emperor-Maximilian-Prize was "Facing challenges together – for a stronger Europe". The focus was on all those projects that maintain their European ties despite the ongoing global crisis. In an international jury meeting in early March, the winning project was determined. It was honoured at the award ceremony in October 2021. Nana Walzer and Daniel Gerer accepted the prize in Innsbruck on behalf of the prize-winning project. The official award ceremony was framed by a students' event as well as a citizens' event. At the events, the winning project was also represented by Alexa Waschkau and Alexander Waschkau (Hoaxilla), Martin Moder and Florian Aigner (What the Fact), Sophia and Tommy Krappweis,

Holm Gero Hümmler Holm Gero Hümmler (born September 22, 1970) is a German nuclear physicist and skeptic, living in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt am Main. Biography Hümmler was born in Hanau. He studied physics and meteorology at Goethe University Frankfurt, tog ...

and Bernd Harder (WildMics-Ferngespräche).

Background

The prize, named after Emperor Maximilian I, was established in 1997 by the Region of Tyrol and the City of Innsbruck on the occasion of the 85th birthday of Innsbruck Mayor Alois Lugger. Since then, the award has honoured outstanding achievements of personalities and institutions in European regional and local politics. In particular, efforts to implement the principle of

subsidiarity Subsidiarity is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate or local level that is consistent with their resolution. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines subsid ...

and the contents of the

European Charter of Local Self-Government The European Charter of Local Self-Government was adopted under the auspices of the Congress of the Council of Europe and was opened for signature by the Council of Europe's member states on 15 October 1985. All Council of Europe member states a ...

and the European Charter of Regional Self-Government of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

have been honoured.
In the context of the preparations for the 2019 Emperor Maximilian Commemorative Year, the Region of Tyrol and the City of Innsbruck jointly decided at the beginning of 2018 to fundamentally renew the existing tender and award process in order to make the overall concept of the award even more citizen-oriented and inclusive. Instead of awarding prizes for outstanding individual achievements, the call for entries will in future be directed at outstanding projects and initiatives that are committed to the central goals of the European unification process in a joint, creative and sustainable manner. In addition, the award has been renamed to “Emperor Maximilian Prize for European Service at the Regional and Local Level”. From now on, the call for applications is directed in particular at individuals, groups of persons (societies and associations), research institutions, interest groups and local authorities of all 47 Council of Europe member states, plus Belarus. Applications will be accepted exclusively via the application platform integrated into the homepage, whereby the application form can be filled in with German, English or French. The decision on the winning project will be announced after an (international) expert jury meeting.

Award Recipients

1998:

Jordi Pujol Jordi Pujol i Soley (, born 9 June 1930) is a retired Catalan politician who was the leader of the party Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) from 1974 to 2003, and President of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 1980 to 2003. Early life ...

1999: Josef Hofmann
2000:

Luc Van den Brande Luc Van den Brande (born 13 October 1945) is a Flemish politician, member of the CD&V and was Minister-president of Flanders from 21 January 1992 until 13 July 1999. He took the initiative to create the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology ( ...

2001: Josephine Farrington
2002:

Erwin Teufel Erwin Teufel (born 4 September 1939, in Zimmern ob Rottweil) is a German politician of the CDU. Political career Teufel was the leader of the CDU parliamentary group in the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg from 1978 to 1991. Teufel was Minis ...

and Heinrich Hoffschulte
2003: Alain Chénard
2004: Elisabeth Gateau
2005:

Jan Olbrycht Jan Marian Olbrycht (born 21 September 1952, in Rybnik) is a Polish politician of the Civic Platform who has been serving Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Silesian Voivodeship since 2004. Olbrycht sits as part of the European People's ...

2007:

Michael Häupl Michael Häupl (born 14 September 1949) is an Austrian politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, he served as mayor and governor of Vienna from 7 November 1994 until 24 May 2018. Early life and education Häupl was born i ...

and Graham Meadows
2008:

Dora Bakoyannis Theodora "Dora" Bakoyanni (, ; née Mitsotaki, ; born May 6, 1954) is a Greek politician. From 2006 to 2009 she was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, the highest position ever to have been held by a woman in the Cabinet of Greece at the ti ...

2009: Giovanni Di Stasi
2010:

Halvdan Skard Halvdan Skard (born 1 December 1939) is a Norwegian politician for the Norwegian Labour Party, Labour Party. He was born in Oslo as a son of Åse Gruda Skard and Sigmund Skard, and through Åse the grandson of Halvdan Koht and Karen Grude Koht. H ...

2011:

Danuta Hübner Danuta Maria Hübner (, or ; born 8 April 1948) is a Polish politician, diplomat, and economist and Member of the European Parliament. She was European Commissioner for Regional Policy from 22 November 2004 until 4 July 2009, when she resigned t ...

2012:

Keith Whitmore Keith Arthur Whitmore (born 15 June 1955) is a former British politician. He was a Liberal and later Liberal Democrat member of Manchester City Council for more than thirty years, retiring in 2012, and was also a member of the European Committee ...

2013:

Karl-Heinz Lambertz Karl-Heinz Lambertz (born 4 June 1952) is a Belgian politician holding a master's degree in law from the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) with an additional specialisation in German law ( University of Heidelberg). Lambertz was president of th ...

2014:

Herwig van Staa Herwig van Staa (born 10 June 1942) was the governor of Tyrol from 2002 to 2008. Van Staa was born in Linz, Upper Austria. His father, who came from the Rhine area, worked as a technician in the steelworks in Linz and died in a sick bay in 194 ...

2015:

Mercedes Bresso Mercedes Bresso (born 12 July 1944) is an Italian politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as Member of the European Parliament from 2014 until 2019 and again from 2023 following the departure of Pierfrancesco Majorino. She reta ...

2016:

Anders Knape Klas Anders Knape (born 7 July 1955 in Karlstad) is a Swedish conservative politician (Moderate Party). He served as the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (CLRAE) of the Council of Europe between November 6, 2018 and Ma ...

2017:

Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2014 to 2023. She has served as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) sin ...

2019: Project Rückenwind – Solidarity with the forgotten corners
2021: #EUROPAgegenCovid19/#EUmythbusters (Nana Walzer, Daniel Gerer)

References

{{reflist Politics awards Austrian awards House of Habsburg Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor