Updated | European Union wins Nobel, $1.2 million for uniting continent

Adds Labour's statement at 3pm

The European Union has won the Nobel Peace Prize for its long-term role in uniting the continent, an award described as morale boost for the bloc as it struggles to resolve its debt crisis.

The committee praised the 27-nation EU for rebuilding after World War Two and for its role in spreading stability to former communist countries after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

The prize, worth $1.2 million will be presented in Oslo on December 10.

In an initial comment, European Commission president Josè Barroso said that it was "with great emotion" that he had received the news of the award of the Noble Peace Prize to the European Union. "It is a great honour for the European Union to be awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace prize by the Nobel Peace prize committee. It is indeed a great honour for all the 500 million citizens of Europe, for all the Member States and all the European institutions to receive this Nobel Prize for Peace. It is justified recognition for a unique project that works for the benefit of its citizens and also for the benefit of the world."

Barroso said the European Union had brought together nations emerging from the ruins of the devastating Second World War and united them in a project for peace, built on supranational institutions representing the common European interest.

"The European Union, starting with the European Community, has reunified countries split by the Cold War, and made it around values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, justice, the rule of law and respect for human rights.

"Through its transformative power, the European Union was able, starting from six countries to reunite almost all the European continent. These values: freedom, democracy, justice, the rule of law and respect for human rights are the ones that people all over the world aspire to. These are also the values that the European Union promotes in order to make the world a better place for all. We are proud that the European Union is the world's largest provider of development assistance and humanitarian aid and is as also at the forefront of global efforts to protect our planet through the fight against climate change and to promote global public goods."

In a statement, Labour's spokesman for EU affairs Luciano Busuttil said the Nobel Prize strengthened the goal to which the European Union was originally formed.

He said that Europe in the past w "a theatre of wars", but it became "a theatre of peace".

"No better award could have been given to the European Union for its 60^th anniversary," Busuttil said.

He said the Labour Party was proud that it had given its input over the past eight years in different EU fora and institutions.

The union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

In the inter-war years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee made several awards to persons who were seeking reconciliation between Germany and France.

Since 1945, the dreadful suffering in World War II demonstrated the need for a new Europe. Over a seventy-year period, Germany and France had fought three wars. Today war between Germany and France is unthinkable.

In the 1980s, Greece, Spain and Portugal joined the EU. The introduction of democracy was a condition for their membership. The fall of the Berlin Wall made EU membership possible for several Central and Eastern European countries, opening a new era in European history.

The admission of Croatia as a member next year, the opening of membership negotiations with Montenegro, and the granting of candidate status to Serbia all strengthen the process of reconciliation in the Balkans. In the past decade, the possibility of EU membership for Turkey has also advanced democracy and human rights in that country.

The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest.