European Book Prize
The European Book Prize , officially known as the Prix du livre européen , was founded in 2007 and is awarded annually. It is supported by Jacques Delors , the former President of the EU Commission, and honors works that deal with the topic of Europe and that were published in one of the 28 member states of the EU last year. The aim of the award is to promote European values and to help bring Europe closer to its citizens.
Award
The European Book Prize was founded by France Roque (Public Relations Director of the Nouvel Observateur and co-founder of Editions Saint-Simon, Publishing), Luce Perrot (founder and president of the Lire la Politique association and organizer of various specialist book fairs) and François-Xavier Priollaud (co-founder of Editions Saint-Simon, publishing and lecturer at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris ).
The prize is awarded annually and is endowed with 10,000 euros (as of 2018). In addition, the books included in the selection are announced in a shortlist.
Support committee
Under the presidency of Jacques Delors, it brings together twelve well-known personalities who are known for their pro-European commitment:
- Jean Daniel , director and founder of the Nouvel Observateur
- Étienne Davignon , former Vice President of the EU Commission
- Dimitris Dimitriadis , President of the European Economic and Social Committee
- Paavo Lipponen , Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 to 2003
- Denis Mac Shane , UK Minister for European Affairs from 2002 to 2005, Member of Parliament
- Pierre Mauroy , Senator, President of the Jean Jaurès Foundation, former French Prime Minister, alderman in Lille since 2001
- Hans-Gert Pöttering , President of the European Parliament since January 2007
- Jorge Sampaio , President of the Portuguese Republic from 1996 to 2006, was recently nominated by the United Nations as “Secretary General of the Alliance of Civilizations”
- Guy Verhofstadt , Prime Minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008
- Walter Veltroni , Lord Mayor of Rome from 2001 to 2008
- Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga , President of Latvia from 1999 to July 2007
jury
The presidents of the jury were:
- 2007: Henning Mankell
- 2008: Jorge Semprún
- 2009: Ezio Mauro
- 2010: Volker Schlöndorff
- 2011: Julian Barnes
- 2012: Costa-Gavras
- 2013: Bernard-Henri Lévy
- 2014: Radu Mihăileanu
- 2015: Erri De Luca
- 2016: Oliver Stone
- 2017: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
- 2018: Krzysztof Warlikowski
- 2019: Barbara Hendricks
The first jury in 2007 was headed by Henning Mankell; It consisted of ten journalists who are permanent foreign correspondents in Brussels and come from the different Member States:
- Andrea Bonanni, La Repubblica
- Bernard Bulcke, De Standaard
- Thomas Ferenczi, Le Monde
- Rolf Gustavson, Svenska Dagbladet
- Thomas Klau, Financial Times Germany
- Jurek Kuczkiewicz, Le Soir
- Jarek Kurski, Gazeta Wyborcza
- Jean Quatremer, Liberation
- David Rennie, The Economist
- Xavier Vidal Folch, El País
- Marek Beylin, Gazeta
Award winners
| year | category | Title | Author | nationality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | De Verenigde Staten van Europa: manifest voor een nieuw Europa | Guy Verhofstadt |
 Belgium
|
|
| 2008 | Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 ( The history of Europe from 1945 to the present ) | Tony Judt |
 United Kingdom
|
|
| 2009 | novel | Gottland | Mariusz Szczygieł |
 Poland
|
| essay | L'Europe pour les Nuls ( Europe for Dummies ) | Sylvie Goulard |
 France
|
|
| 2010 | novel | Puhdistus ( purgatory ) | Sofi Oksanen |
 Finland
|
| essay | La bellezza e l'inferno ( Beauty and Hell ) | Roberto Saviano |
 Italy
|
|
| 2011 | novel | Have your heart ready: an East German family story | Maxim Leo |
 Germany
|
| essay | My z Jedwabnego | Anna Bikont |
Poland
|
|
| 2012 | novel | How the Madonna came to the moon | Rolf Bauerdick |
Germany
|
| essay | Le passage à l'Europe. Histoire d'un commencement | Luuk van Middelaar |
 Netherlands
|
|
| 2013 | novel | Riña de gatos ( cats War ) | Eduardo Mendoza Garriga |
 Spain
|
| essay | Ces Français, fossoyeurs de l'euro | Arnaud Leparmentier |
France
|
|
| 2014 | novel | La robe de Hannah. Berlin 1904-2014 | Pascale Hugues |
France
|
| essay | Turbulent and Mighty Continent: What Future for Europe? | Anthony Giddens |
United Kingdom
|
|
| 2015 | novel | Vera | Jean-Pierre Orban |
Belgium
|
| essay | The European messenger | Robert Menasse |
 Austria
|
|
| 2016 | novel | El impostor ( The False Survivor ) | Javier Cercas |
Spain
|
| essay | Le Plus et le Moins | Erri De Luca |
Italy
|
|
| 2017 | novel | zinc | David Van Reybrouck |
Belgium
|
| essay | Si la democratie fait faillite | Raffaele Simone |
Italy
|
|
| 2018 | novel | Les Amnésiques ( The Memoryless - Memories of a European ) | Géraldine Black |
France
|
| essay | Orbán. Europe's New Strongman | Paul Lendvai |
 Hungary , Austria
|
|
| Special prize of the jury |
East West Street: On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes Against Humanity” ( Return to Lviv. On the origins of genocide and crimes against humanity ) |
Philippe Sands |
United Kingdom
|
|
| 2019 | novel | Middle England | Jonathan Coe |
United Kingdom
|
| essay | Nous l'Europe, banquet des peuples | Laurent Gaudé |
France
|
Short list
2007
- Peter Prange : Values, from Plato to Pop, everything that connects us
- Ulrich Beck , Edgar Grande : The Cosmopolitan Europe
- Matthias Matussek : We Germans
- Guy Verhofstadt: Les Etats-Unis d'Europe
- Janine Dragustinova : Morta Nctopnr
- Alex Popov : Mission Londres
- Jorge Semprún : Pensar en Europa
- Josep M. Colomer : Grandes imperios, pequenas naciones
- Sylvie Goulard : Le coq et la perle
- Philippe Herzog : Le bonheur du voyage
- Leerssen Joep : National thought in Europe: a cultural history
- Donald Sassoon : The culture of Europeans - from 1800 to the present
- Mark Leonard : Why Europe will run the 21st century
- Anika Strom Melin : Europeerna
2008
- Feri Lainscek : Nedotakljivi
- Steffen Möller : Viva Polonia
- Bronislav Geremek and Robert Picht : Visions d'Europe
- Thomas Ferenczi : Pourquoi l'Europe
- Dominique Borne , Peter Brook and Michel Deguy : Les arpenteurs de l'Europe
- Jean-François Mattei : Le regard vide
- Christian Vandermotten and Bernard Dezert : L'identité de l'Europe
- Jürgen Habermas : Oh Europe
- Tony Judt: Postwar
2009
- Björn Larsson : Le rêve du philologue
- Jáchym Topol : cirque zone
- Jean Paul Kauffmann : Courlande
- Marc Bressant : La dernière conférence
- Kapka Kassabova : Street Without a Name
- Jean François Dauven : Ceux qui marchent dans les villes
- Joseph Pearce : La Constitution européenne en vers, terres de promesse
- Jacques Dewitte : L'exception européenne, ces mérites qui nous distinguent
- Per Nyholm : Europaeerne-reportager fra en rejse I penetrate Europe
- Sylvie Goulard: L'Europe pour les nuls
- Marius Szczygiel: Gottland
2010
- Tom Keve : Trois explications du monde
- Per Olov Enquist : Ett annat liv ( Another life )
- Andrzej Stasiuk : Dojczland
- Hugo Hamilton : Disguise
- Vesko Branev : L'homme surveillé
- Paul Verhaeghen : Omega Mineur
- Ursula Prokop : Margaret Stonborough Wittgenstein
- Perry Anderson : The New-Old World
- Jean Marc Ferry : Le République crépusculaire. Comprendre le projet européen “in sensu cosmopolitico”
- Sylvie Schweitzer : Femmes au pouvoir, une Histoire de l'égalité professionnelle en Europe (XIXe-XXIe siècle)
- Tzvetan Todorov : La signature humaine
- José Enrique Ruiz-Domènec : Europe. The claves of history
- Heinrich August Winkler : History of the West. From the beginnings in antiquity to the 20th century
- Roberto Saviano: La bellezza e l'inferno ( Beauty and Hell )
- Sofi Oksanen: Puhdistus ( Purgatory )
2011
- Jonathan Coe : The terrible privacy of Maxwell Sim ( The monstrous loneliness of Maxwell Sim )
- Hugo Hamilton : Hand in the Fire ( The Irish Friend )
- Dimitris Stefanakis : Days of Alexandria
- Ignacio Martínez de Pisón : El día de mañana
- Kenneth White : La carte de Guido
- Paolo Rumiz : Aux frontières de l'Europe
- Cécile Leconte : Understanding Euroscepticism
- Nicole Gnesotto : L'Europe at-elle un avenir stratégique?
- Franck Biancheri : Crise mondiale, en route pour le monde d'après
- Bo Strath and Hagen Schulz-Forberg : Political History of European Integration. The Hypocrisy of Democracy through Market
- Roland Siegloff : Journey to the Last Frontiers
- Anna Bikont: My z Jedwabnego
- Maxim Leo: Have your heart ready: an East German family story
2012
- Antonio Muñoz Molina : La noche de los tiempos ( The night of memories )
- Ignacio Del Valle : Les demons de Berlin
- Eugenio Scalfari : Par la haute mer. Notes de lecture d'un Moderne
- Jürgen Habermas : On the constitution of Europe
- Rolf Bauerdick: How the Madonna came to the moon
- Luuk Van Middelaar: Le passage à l'Europe. Histoire d'un commencement
2013
- Luciana Castellina : The Discovery of the World
- Petros Markaris : Liquidations à la Grecque
- Vassilis Alexakis : L'Enfant Grec
- Yves Charles Zarka : Refaire l'Europe with Jürgen Habermas
- Michel Aglieta and Thomas Brand: Un new deal pour l'Europe?
- Ulrich Beck : German Europe
- Arnaud Leparmentier: Ces Français, fossoyeurs de l'euro
- Eduardo Mendoza Garriga: Riña de gatos ( cats War )
2014
- Jonathan Coe : Expo 58
- Lola Lafon : La Petite Communiste qui ne souriait jamais
- Raffaele Simone : Les passions de l'âme
- Sébastien Maillard : Qu'avons-nous fait de l'Europe?
- Edgar Morin : Mes Berlin
- Ivan Klíma : My Crazy Century
- Pascale Hugues: La robe de Hannah. Berlin 1904-2014
- Anthony Giddens: Turbulent and Mighty Continent: What Future for Europe?
2015
- Ersi Sotiropoulos : Eva
- Lionel Duroy : Echapper
- Zygmunt Miłoszewski : Un fond de vérité
- Jean-Pierre Orban: Vera
- Robert Menasse: The European Country Messenger
2016
- Stefan Hertmans : Oorlog en terpentijn ( My grandfather's heaven )
- Bogdan Teodorescu : Spada
- Giles Merritt : Slippery Slope
- Cécile Allegra : Le Salaire des enfants
- Sandro Gozi : Generation Erasmus
- Javier Cercas: El impostor ( The False Survivor )
- Erri De Luca: Le Plus et le Moins
2017
- Marion Van Renterghem : Angela Merkel, l'ovni politique
- Edna O'Brien : The Little Red Chairs ( The Little Red Chairs )
- Éric Vuillard : L'ordre du jour
- Michael Köhlmeier : The girl with the thimble
- Philipp Ther : The new order on the old continent. A history of neoliberal Europe
- David Van Reybrouck: Zinc
- Raffaele Simone: Si la democratie fait faillite
2018
- Claude Martin : La diplomatie n'est pas un dîner de gala. Mémoires d'un ambassadeur.
- Lionel Duroy : Eugenia
- Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt : Madame Pylinska et le secret de Chopin
- Percy Kemp : La promesse d'Hector
- Peter Frankopan : The Silk Roads: A New History of the World ( Light from the East: A New History of the World )
- Géraldine Schwarz: Les Amnésiques ( The Memoryless - Memories of a European )
- Paul Lendvai: Orbán. Europe's New Strongman
- Philippe Sands: East West Street: On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes Against Humanity” ( Return to Lviv. On the origins of genocide and crimes against humanity )
2019
- Christine de Mazières : Trois jours à Berlin
- Luuk van Middelaar : Quand l'Europe improvise
- Maxime Calligaro , Eric Cardère : Les compromis
- François Reynaert : Voyage en Europe
- Marion van Renterghem : Mon Europe, je t'aime moi non plus
- Jonathan Coe: Middle England
- Laurent Gaudé: Nous l'Europe, banquet des peuples
Web links
- Official website (French)
- Prize Winner (French)