President Klaus Iohannis will be awarded the ‘Emperor Otto’ Prize on Wednesday, October 14, in Magdeburg, Germany, for “honoring the great merits in the European unification process,” the Presidential Administration said in a release to Agerpres.
According to the quoted source, the award ceremony will take place at the Magdeburg Dome (Cathedral of the Saints Mauritius and Katharina), a symbolic place, with special significance for the history of Europe, which has been housing for over 1,000 years the tomb of Otto I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
During the festivity, the Laudatio speech will be delivered by Heiko Maas, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ceremony will be attended by Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Rainer Robra, Minister of State and Head of the State Chancellery of Saxony-Anhalt, and Lutz Trumper, Mayor of Magdeburg.
The Emperor Otto Prize is awarded every two years to personalities and organizations that have special merits in the European process of unification and in the promotion of European thought. The award was first presented in 2005, on the occasion of the 1,200th anniversary of the city of Magdeburg.
Among the dignitaries so far awarded are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former German President Richard von Weizsacker, former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, and former High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. In 2015, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was the first institution to be awarded this prize.
