The Twitterati did not let the Oct. 12 awarding of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union pass without finding some humor.
Officially, the Oslo-based Nobel Committee awarded the prestigious prize to the EU because it “and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe,” according to the Nobel Prize's website.
European journalists' tweets generally poked fun at the awarding of the prize at a time of strife as European politicians are under considerable pressure to find a solution to budgetary and debt woes in peripheral European countries.
“Crisis is over,” tweeted Fabrizio Goria, a financial reporter at Likiesta.it, shortly following the award announcement. He added:
c “What if Merkel says NEIN?”;
c “EU: Peace, prosperity and growth? Are you sure?” (with a picture of riots in Greece attached);
c And, perhaps the funniest, “S&P cuts Nobel prize committee rating by three notches to "junk,' negative outlook.”
Stefan de Vries, who describes himself on Twitter as an “award-winning post-nationalist journalist in Paris & Brussels,” quipped: “BREAKING: The 27 member states are already fighting over who is going to pick up the prize in Stockholm.”
But Graeme Wearden, a business reporter at the Guardian in London, found an investment angle to the fact that the prize winnings wouldn't make a dent in the EU's need for cash: “What if (the EU) gave the Nobel Prize winnings a banking license and then leveraged it?...”
