The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will receive the prestigious international Charlemagne Prize for services to Europe, the organisers said, quoted by EuroActive.
The prize's board of directors nominated the 66-year-old German politician for the award, describing her as "a strong voice for Europe in the world".
Previous winners of the prize, awarded by the western German city of Aachen since 1950, include Winston Churchill, Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The prize is named after Charlemagne (748-814), whose empire spanned much of Western Europe. He often resided in Aachen, which is near Germany's present-day borders with Belgium and the Netherlands.
Von der Leyen has been president of the European Commission since 2019, when she became the first woman to head the EU executive. That position puts her at the head of 32,000 people and much of the bloc's political agenda.
Last year, she was re-elected for a second term.
A member of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Von der Leyen previously held several ministerial posts under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, including defence minister.
She is a qualified doctor and is the daughter of the late Ernst Albrecht, a prominent CDU politician who served as premier of the north-western German state of Lower Saxony.
She was born and grew up in Brussels, where her father held a senior position in the nascent European project before starting his political career in Germany. | BGNES
