The European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for six decades of work in advancing peace in Europe.

The committee said the EU had helped to transform Europe "from a continent of war to a continent of peace".

The award comes as the EU faces the biggest crisis of its history, with recession and social unrest rocking many of its member states.

The last organisation to be given the award outright was Medecins Sans Frontieres, which won in 1999.

Announcing the award, Nobel committee president Thorbjoern Jagland acknowledged the EU's current financial problems and social unrest.

But he said the committee wanted to concentrate on the body's work over six decades of advancing "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights".

Mr Jagland highlighted the EU's work in sealing the reconciliation between France and Germany in the decades after World War II.

It was a unanimous decision by the five-member panel of the Nobel committee, but also came as a surprise to many - not least the pundits who had variously speculated that perhaps the bloggers of the Arab Spring, or a Russian human rights groups might win.

The European Union's achievements are clear, and the Nobel committee has highlighted them. Focusing on a long-term view of the EU's activities the committee spoke of reconciliation following the two World Wars. It mentioned the integration of the Eastern Bloc countries, and the EU's role in delivering stability in the Balkans.

However, they picked a rather strange time to honour the organisation. The eurozone crisis has made the EU look more divided and fragile than it has for decades.

And he praised the organisation for incorporating Spain, Portugal and Greece after their authoritarian regimes collapsed in the 1970s.

The EU's reconciliation work had now moved to Balkan countries, he said, and pointed out that Croatia was on the verge of membership.

Reacting to the award, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on his Twitter feed: "It is a great honour for the whole of the EU, all 500 million citizens, to be awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace prize."

The BBC's Europe correspondent Matthew Price says the EU's achievements are clear, but the committee has picked a strange time to highlight them.

The eurozone crisis has made the EU look more divided and fragile than it has for decades, he says.

The Nobel committee has rarely shied away from controversy with its choice of winner.

US President Barack Obama won the award in 2009, despite leading a country that was fighting two separate wars.

And the choice of detained Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010 enraged China, which made an official complaint to Norway.

HNosegbe: Well, seeing that Nobel prizes are not like sports awards that are given strictly to the best performers of the year, it's safe to say that this award is well-deserved. With a heritage of war and destruction from previous centuries, Europe gives me hope that we Africans will one day put aside our linguistic loyalties (a relic of the colonial era), come together and integrate our economies the way they have done.

The African Union will get there one day. I hope.

maclatunji:

You have got to be kidding here. The European Union? They might as well give it to China for feeding and maintaining over 1 billion human beings and keeping them out of war for decades.

afam4eva: So, even group sef dey win Nobel prize? That means Massob has hope. They're the only militant group that don't destry lives and property. I expect that they'll be given the Nobel peace prize next year.

HNosegbe:

Why exactly are you against the award? Please refute the points I made. I don't get your analogy.

DANILSA: MAYBE IF NOT FOR NIGERIAN CRISIS AND BOKOHARAM SULTAN COULD HAVE SNATCHED IT.

HNosegbe: Well, seeing that Nobel prizes are not like sports awards that are given strictly to the best performers of the year, it's safe to say that this award is well-deserved. With a heritage of war and destruction from previous centuries, Europe gives me hope that we Africans will one day put aside our linguistic loyalties (a relic of the colonial era), come together and integrate our economies the way they have done.

The African Union will get there one day. I hope .

gidiMonsta:

Your post reminds me of Rick Ross's verse in onyinye rmx; "...we talking money, u talking nonsense..."

cold:

Same here. I'm struggling to make sense of the...well statement

afam4eva:
The Nobel prize is about pride and honour and not money...Who's talking nonsense now?

gidiMonsta:

My reference to that line of the song was an analogy, for you to infer that I meant something else says a lot about your IQ. Please keep Biafra/Massob away from this thread, this is foreign affairs abeg before you people start another tribal war on here.

afam4eva:
After opening your yansh, you're talking analogy...

gidiMonsta:

I give up, you're confirmed retard. No wonder dayokanu and ileke-idi dey always mess you up.

Godman_n: Europe, the slave masters of our world has become an umpire in their own game. funny. As usual, our brainwashed brothers will never get it. They'll always queue behind the masters Europe.

Godman_n: Europe, the slave masters of our world has become an umpire in their own game. funny. As usual, our brainwashed brothers will never get it. They'll always queue behind the masters Europe.

afam4eva:
You started the stup1dity and now that the heat is one you're giving up. Next time learn not to mess with people with superior wisdom because it will come back to bite you. I'm your intellectual god, bow down and worship me...

gidiMonsta:

Hehehe...this is serious, all hail NL's resident retarrrd (sic)...god afam.

How on earth can the heat be one? (We'll let that slide as a typo, even if 'e' is very far from 'n' or spacebar.)

I believe u meant 'superior intellect' not 'wisdom' which I really doubt u possess considering my IQ is far far above 55, the threshold of ur type.

Truman155: The noble price is loosing its value its like a nigerian stuff now thank god 4 god