NATO to receive Westphalian Peace Prize in Germany

NATO is to receive the international Westphalian Peace Prize, worth €100,000 ($113,350), at a ceremony in the Historic Town Hall in Münster on Thursday afternoon.

The Atlantic defence alliance is being honoured for its contribution to the European peace order.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is scheduled to deliver the laudatory address and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is expected to accept the prize.

The youth prize, worth €50,000, is being given to the international initiative socioMovens, based in the German city of Dortmund. The church foundation works to make life in Europe more humane through projects in central and eastern Europe.

The prize is awarded every two years by the Economic Society for Westphalia and Lippe. It commemorates the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which was concluded in the city halls of Münster and Osnabrück. The peace agreement ended the Thirty Years' War and is regarded as a cornerstone of the European order of peace among equal sovereign states.