The EU, the institution presiding over a crisis-riven Europe with record-high youth unemployment . and fears of renewed fascism starting in Greece is getting the Nobel-Peace-Prize. This Nobel Peace Prize is a nod toward six decades of Peace at a time when some members, Greece in particular, see themselves in an economic war with other European countries. Is the Nobel committee meddling to try to save the EU? Is it making the case for its own irrelevancy?

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Nobel Peace Prize: Whose peace are we talking about? - Panel

There was some astonishment among Europeans in Spain, England, Greece and Italy -- as they learned they are collective recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. The European Union was named the winner of the prestigious award last week.

The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, declared it a victory for 500 million Europeans to win the prize.

Some Europeans thought it was preposterous, particularily in light of the chaos of Europe's economic crisis. One joked, can I put it on My CV? Another tweeted "Next year, the Nobel peace prize will be awarded to planet earth for not self-imploding."

Albert Schweitzer was a peace prize winner. So was Lester Pearson and so was the the International Red Cross and MSF. Some critics think giving the prize to half a continent diminishes the achievements of humanitarians and peaceful organizations.

With his thoughts, we were joined by Iver Neumann, the Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics. He was in Oslo this morning.

And Jay Nordlinger is a senior editor of The National Review and author of Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, The Most Famous and Controversial Prize In the World. He was in New York.

The final prize associated with the Nobel prizes was announced today. The Bank of Sweden prize in Economic Science in memory of Alfred Nobel, which was added to the list in 1968, was announced this morning. U.S. economist Alvine Roth of Harvard and Lloyd S. Shapley of the University of California won the prize for research on how to match different economic agents such as students for schools or even organ donors with patients.

This segment was produced by The Current's Pacinthe Mattar, Ellen Saenger and Lara O'Brien.

Other segments from today's show:

The End of Your Life Book Club: Will Schwalbe

It's a Girl: A documentary on Gendercide