President Klaus Iohannis is set to receive the Charlemagne Prize of Aachen on October 2, the presidential administration announced.

The awarding of the prize, initially scheduled for May 2020, was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The prize honors work performed in the service of European unity. It is given to public figures or bodies “distinguished by their outstanding work toward European unity or cooperation between its states.”

The Romanian president is given the prize for being “an outstanding proponent of European values, of freedom and democracy, of the protection of minorities and of cultural diversity, as a man who has rendered significant service in the interests of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary,” according to a citation from the prize's board of directors.

Václav Havel, Jean-Claude Juncker, Angela Merkel, Donald Tusk, Herman Van Rompuy, Martin Schulz, Pope Francis, Simone Veil, and Pope John Paul II are among those who previously received the distinction. In 2018, the prize went to French president Emmanuel Macron, and in 2019 to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

(Photo: Presidency.ro)

simona@romania-insider.com