The European Commission has announced during the celebration of the Frankfurt Book Fair the name of the eleven winners of the 2nd annual European Union Prize for Literature, which aims to draw attention to new talents and to promote the publication of their books in different countries.
 

The European Union Prize for Literature is a contest funded funded by the European Union Culture Programme, together with the the European Booksellers Federation (EBF), the European Writers' Council (EWC) and the Federation of European Publishers (FEP).

The countries entitled to nominate the winning authors changes each year, so that all 35 countries participating in the programme are represented over a three-year period. In this occasion, the eleven winning authors were selected by national juries in Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Winners of the European Union Prize for Literature 2010

• Peter Terrin, “De Bewaker (2009)” (Belgium) - Publishing house: De Arbeiderspers
• Myrto Azina Chronides, “To Peirama (2009)” (Cyprus) - Publishing house: Armida Publications
• Adda Djørup, “Den mindste modstand (2009)” (Denmark) - Publishing house: Samleren
• Tiit Aleksejev, “Palveränd (2008)” (Estonia) - Publishing house: Varrak
• Riku Korhonen, “Lääkäriromaani (2008)” (Finland) - Publishing house: Sammakko
• Iris Hanika, “Das Eigentliche (2010)” (Germany) - Publishing house: Droschl Verlag
• Jean Back, “Amateur (2009)” (Luxembourg) - Publishing house: Ultimondo
• Răzvan Rădulescu, “Teodosie cel Mic (2006)” (Romania) - Publishing house: Polirom
• Nataša Kramberger, “Nebesa v Robidah (2007)” (Slovenia) - Publishing house: Javni sklad RS za ljubiteljske dejavnosti
• Raquel Martínez-Gómez, “Sombras de unicornio (2007)” (Spain) - Publishing house: Algaida Editores
• Goce Smilevski, “Сестрата на Зигмунд Фројд (2007)” (The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) - Publishing house: Kultura

The names of the winning authors were unveiled during the celebration of the Frankfurt Book Fair. All of them will received their prizes, which represent 5.000 Euro, from Androulla Vassiliou, the Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, during a ceremony on 18 November in Brussels.

Europe's cultural and linguistic diversity is a tremendous asset, but it also presents challenges, as it was recently highlighted at the celebration of European Day of Languages. An examples of what this challenge represents are the 23 European Union official languages, the around 60 regional and minority languages, using 3 alphabets (Latin, Cyrillic and Greek).

Every year, numerous new European writers get their works published nationally but only a few of them see their books translated into another European language which can potentially help them reach the 550 million people living within the EU. The EU Culture Programme also offers financial support for the translation of literary works. Since 2007, it has provided 8.5 million Euro to facilitate the translation of 1.500 books.