Nobel award recognises Europe as "continent of peace"

OSLO (Reuters) - The European Union received the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday, honoured by the Norwegian committee which looked beyond Europe's current malaise to recognise its decades of stability and democracy after the horrors of two world wars.

Fittingly for an institution with no single leader, the EU sent three of its presidents to the Oslo ceremony for the 2012 prize, which critics including former Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu say is undeserved.