The European Book Prize () is a

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded Literature, literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award c ...

established in 2007. It is organized by the association Esprit d'Europe in Paris. It seeks to promote European values, and to contribute to European citizens' better understanding of the

as a cultural entity. Eligible books must have been published in one of the 27 European Union (EU) member-states in the preceding year, in the original language or a translation. Works are submitted in one of two categories: ''essai'' (which in French means, something broader than the English "essay") and ''romans et récits'' ("novels and narratives"). A long list is drawn up by the organizers in Paris; the number varies but for example, in 2011, there were 50 essais plus 47 romans et recits. These are then sent to a "sponsorship committee" which narrows it down to about a seven title shortlist, which are then given to a new committee of judges, composed of journalists and authors. The European Book Prize was founded by France Rouqe, Luce Perrot and François-Xavier Priollaud. The prize is worth 10,000 euros to each winner. The first two years saw only one winner who received 20,000 euros.

Winners

The inaugural European Book Prize was awarded to

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

's prime minister

Guy Verhofstadt Guy Maurice Marie Louise Verhofstadt (; ; born 11 April 1953) is a Belgian politician who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008. He was a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Belgium from 2009 until 2024. He was a me ...

for ''United States of Europe''. The ceremony was held at the European Parliament in Brussels on 5 December 2007. Swedish crime fiction writer Henning Mankell handed the prize to the winner. While giving the prize, Mankell said that the jury was sensitive to the political courage showed by the current prime minister of Belgium. He added that in a Europe which has a lot of self-doubt, which has a lot of questions about its own future, Guy Verhofstadt offered a clear proposal for the future. He gave reasons to believe in European constitution. While receiving the reward, Verhofstadt said, "When I wrote this book, I in fact meant it as a provocation against all those who didn't want the

European Constitution The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE; commonly referred to as the European Constitution or as the Constitutional Treaty) was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European ...

. Fortunately, in the end a solution was found with the treaty, that was approved."

Winners by country

* In 2023, Robert Menasse became the first laureate to be awarded the prize for two different books (in 2015 and 2023)

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.livre-europeen.eu/
European Commission photos relating to awarding of the first Europe Book Prize on 5 December 2007 in the European Parliament in Brussels
Awards established in 2007 French fiction awards Non-fiction literary awards