European Order of Merit: Parliament Honours Merkel, Wałęsa, Zelenskyy

The European Parliament marked a defining moment in its institutional history on Tuesday 19 May 2026, when it inaugurated the European Order of Merit in a Strasbourg ceremony attended by the first laureates and senior figures from across the EU institutions. The award, initiated by the Parliament in 2025 to recognise contributions to European integration and the promotion of European values, was conferred on twenty distinguished individuals announced by President Roberta Metsola in March.

Distinguished Members

Among the twenty laureates, three were elevated to the category of Distinguished Members of the European Order of Merit, a status reserved for figures whose contribution to Europe is judged to be of historical significance: former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Polish President and Solidarność leader Lech Wałęsa, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The three are emblematic of three different European stories. Angela Merkel anchored European stability through sixteen years of successive crises – sovereign debt, migration, pandemic – at the helm of the Union’s largest Member State. Lech Wałęsa embodied the democratic transformation that brought Central and Eastern Europe out of Soviet domination and into the European family. Volodymyr Zelenskyy personifies, in 2026, the defence of European values against the most direct external challenge they have faced in a generation.

A symbolic award in a symbolic year

The choice of 2026 for the first conferment was itself a statement. This year marks the 76th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, the 40th anniversary of Portugal and Spain’s accession to what was then the European Economic Community, and the 40th anniversary of the first official Europe Day celebrations in 1986. Across the EU institutions, this triple milestone has shaped the calendar of public diplomacy throughout the spring.

For Parliament, the Order of Merit fills a long-noted gap. Until last year, the Union had no formal mechanism to recognise contributions to European integration at the highest level. National honours systems differ widely, and no pan-European decoration existed. The Sakharov Prize, awarded annually since 1988, recognises defence of human rights worldwide; the new Order of Merit is intended to honour those who have shaped Europe itself.

The full list

The remaining seventeen laureates announced by President Metsola in March reflect a broad reading of contribution to European integration: former Heads of State and Government, EU Commissioners, civil society leaders, cultural figures and scientists. Some have served at the very top of the Union’s institutions; others have shaped European public life through their work in journalism, the arts or the sciences.

The selection process was conducted by a committee chaired by the President of the Parliament, with consultation across political groups. Future cohorts are expected to be announced annually, building over time a register of contributions to the European project across the disciplines and generations.

What the ceremony said about the moment

The symbolism of the inaugural ceremony was not lost on observers. Honouring Merkel and Wałęsa alongside Zelenskyy in 2026 effectively places the defence of Ukraine on the same historical register as the Cold War democratic transitions and the long management of European crises through the 2010s. The implicit argument is that the work of building Europe is continuous, and that each generation faces its own foundational test.

President Metsola, whose term ends mid-mandate later this year under the Parliament’s rotation principle, used the ceremony to reinforce the institution’s central message of recent months: that European democracy must be defended actively, that the rule of law is not negotiable within the Union, and that solidarity with Ukraine is, for Parliament, a constitutional commitment.

For an institution often accused of remoteness from citizens, the Order of Merit offers an unusually public expression of the values it claims to defend. Whether the new award acquires, over time, the public resonance of established national honours is a question that history will answer. For now, the choice of three laureates from three very different European stories has set a high reference point for what the Order is intended to mean.