The Grand Committee's chairman Mia-Petra Kumpula, left, welcomes European Union President Belgian Herman Van Rompuy, right, as he arrives to The Grand Committee at the Parliament house in Helsinki, Finland, Friday Oct. 12, 2012.
She also believes that the award may be sending the message that the EU has to a large extent been successful. Rehman adds that the crisis has made the EU's resolve all the more apparent, with euro area countries working to help bail each other out.
"They're all involved in trying to save this mess," says Rehman. "[The EU] is very strong in the face of the fact that they've gone through a very serious crisis with us in 2008 and they got hit again in 2010. And they haven't recovered, but they're keeping this together at the expense of themselves."
Not that everyone is good-natured about it. On the Nobel Peace Prize web page, many have made their true feelings about the euro crisis known amid the many congratulations to the EU.
"Thank you so much for all the austerity!" wrote one user named Sofia.
One person who only identified as "Swedish Citizen" commented, "So I guess that Greece will take the prize money?"
Danielle Kurtzleben is a business and economics reporter for U.S. News & World Report. You can follow her on Twitter or reach her at dkurtzleben@usnews.com.
Reader Comments (