Abstract
In 2012 the Nobel Committee awarded the European Union (EU) its Peace Prize. It commemorated the building and sustaining of peace between Europeans, a process in which the Nobel Committee proposed that the EU and its predecessors had played an important part. It explicitly commen-ded the Union’s success in repeatedly reconciling a divided continent and complemented its efforts to build peace beyond its borders. But does the EU (continue to) deserve such praise? This contribution examines European peacebuilding from the early inte-gration of post-World War Two economies, through the uniting of Europe after the Cold War to contemporary conflict management efforts in the Western Balkans and the Eastern neighbourhood. The purpose of this endeavour is to examine whether lessons from the European experience can be observed that may facilitate future regional stabilisation processes – within and beyond the Union.