Embarrassed Nobel Peace Prize officials have admitted that the 2012 Award was inadvertently given to the EU (European Union) instead of the UEA (United Arab Emirates) due to a secretarial error.
The EU was mistakenly awarded the Prize for advancing "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights". But the UAE was in fact the real winner and selected too on the basis of its ‘long standing efforts to protect human rights and basic freedoms’, the way in which it has ‘kept up with national and international developments’, and the 'efforts by which it has updated its laws and systems’.
Commenting in Das Bild, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel said, "We have no intention of returning the Prize. It is ours and ours alone. Zum beispiel, look what we have done for Greece, Spain and Italy. We are one happy and harmonious unit with no threat of any future hostility towards each other. Europe is truly wunderbar."
A spokesman from the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, “Unfortunately a French speaking female transcriber, who was used to the AZERTY keyboard layout, found herself using a QWERTY keyboard layout during the part of the Peace Prize selection process. We will be sending her to the United Arab Emirates to explain her gaff in person.”
Against a backdrop of international criticism the Committee has since detailed its satisfaction with the UAE and determination to take the Prize out of the EU's hands, citing that the former was now in harmony with international standards, especially in the treatment of women.
“The UAE has also greatly improved women's role in society, by increasing opportunities for involvement in a number of fields, especially in domestic service, typing and transcribing with one hand. “