Mario Draghi receives Charlemagne Prize

Former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi received the International Charlemagne Prize on January 17, an acknowledgment of his decades-long push for European unification. Named after the Frankish Emperor Charles the Great, the first ruler to unify Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the prize is awarded by a committee of individuals connected to Aachen, Germany, Charlemagne’s capital. Committee head Armin Laschet remarked, “Europe must not become a pawn of external powers in the face of overlapping geopolitical crises.” The prize is an endorsement of Draghi’s agenda to deepen Europe’s economic integration to better compete with China and the United States.