Charlemagne Prize 2018 – preparations entering the final stretch

• Overwhelming response to award of the Charlemagne Prize to French President Emmanuel Macron evident in long list of guests, great media interest and a densely packed programme.
• Lord Mayor thrilled by the president's willingness to spend two full days in Aachen. Encounters with the populace on the Katschhof and during walkabouts along the way planned.
• Security a top priority on both days; negative impacts for visitors and citizens to be kept to a minimum.

Preparations for this year's Charlemagne Prize Award are entering the final stretch. Signs of the upcoming celebrations are to be seen everywhere in Aachen's city centre. Yesterday (7th May) Aachen's Lord Mayor Marcel Philipp and Chairman of the Charlemagne Prize Board of Directors Dr. Jürgen Linden announced details of the current status of the preparations. On Ascension Day (Thursday, 10th May), the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen will be awarded to the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron.

The president's programme on Wednesday

In the late afternoon on Wednesday, 9th May, Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte will start the French President's visit programme with a private tour of Aachen Cathedral. Lord Mayor Marcel Philipp sees it as a "great honour for Aachen that the president will be spending two days in our city and completing the full agenda of a Charlemagne Prize Laureate".

Around 7 pm, Macron will then visit the "Karlspreis Live" open-air festivities on the Katschhof, where he will be officially welcomed and will address the public. After that, at 8 pm, he will proceed to the Aula Carolina in Pontstraße to meet with invited guests for the dinner on the eve of the award ceremony.

Programme on Thursday

Ascension Day, 10th May, Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte will begin their day at 9 am by attending a pontifical mass at Aachen Cathedral. Later, he will meet with Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and the President of the Ukraine Petro Poroshenko for trinational talks in the office of the Lord Mayor Marcel Philipp. At exactly 11:15 am, in the Coronation Hall, the Award Ceremony of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen will commence. Subsequently, President Macron and other guests of honour will greet the public from the Katschhof stage at the Charlemagne Prize open-air celebrations. Then, at 2:30 pm, he will round off his Charlemagne Prize visit programme at the RWTH Aachen University's lecture hall building C.A.R.L. in Claßenstraße, where he will discuss his visions of a European University and the importance of education and science with around 1000 students.

Nine heads of state and government, eight former Charlemagne Prize laureates

Currently, five heads of state are expected in Aachen on Ascension Day. In addition to the French President Emmanuel Macron, King Felipe VI of Spain, President of the Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Lithuanian President and previous Charlemagne Prize Laureate Dalia Grybauskaité and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg will be attending the award along with the heads of government of Bulgaria, Croatia, Luxembourg and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The list of guests also includes eight previous recipients of the Charlemagne Prize. Professor Timothy Garton Ash (2017) and Martin Schulz (2015), Jean-Claude Trichet (2011), Chancellor Angela Merkel (2008), who will be giving a speech at the Award Ceremony, Javier Solana Madariaga (2007), Mario Draghi (2002 in behalf of the Euro), Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg (1986) as well as Dalia Grybauskaité (2013) have confirmed that they will attend. Dalia Grybauskaité will also be giving the speech in honour of this year's Charlemagne Prize Laureate at the dinner on the eve of the Award Ceremony in the Aula Carolina.

Media response

The media response to the upcoming award was already higher than ever at the beginning of the Charlemagne Prize Week. "Our award also coincides with the anniversary of the commencement of President Macron's term of office," says Lord Mayor Philipp. "This fact only serves to intensify the focus of interest on the president and on the messages he will be sending out from Aachen.“

And the media interest in the award is certainly impressive. At the close of the press and media accreditation period, Aachen's Press and Marketing department reported over 200 requests for accreditation – including from teams of international TV channels, from Germany's ARD and ZDF, from representatives of prestigious national and international newspapers and from news, photo and TV agencies. The Charlemagne Prize Award Ceremony on Ascension Day will be broadcast live on the German TV channels WDR and ZDF from 11:15 am to 12:45 pm. The meeting of Charlemagne Prize Laureate Macron with students of the RWTH Aachen University will be broadcast live on PHOENIX on Thursday starting at 14:30 pm.

A hands-on president

Emmanuel Macron, as is well-known from many of his public appearances in the past months, is very keen on close contact to local people. Multiple walkabouts are therefore also planned during his two-day visit in Aachen, according to Dr. Jürgen Linden, Chairman of the Charlemagne Prize Board of Directors. "He's certainly going to be shaking lots and lots of hands," say Linden, anticipating with great satisfaction the overall number of positive images which will be generated during the Charlemagne Prize celebrations and broadcast to the world. But although this is all very nice and meaningful, Linden continues, the main focus remains on the political statement that the Charlemagne Prize traditionally intends to make. "For 70 years now, the Charlemagne Prize has been awarded for outstanding services to European integration. That's what this award is actually about, that's what the Charlemagne Prize Society is actually about," Linden emphasises, also with regard to the demonstrations that have been announced for Thursday.

 "Karlspreis Live"

The celebrations on the Katschhof will go on for two days. "Musikalisch-Lebendig-Kulinarisch“ (musical-lively-culinary) is the motto under which the City of Aachen's Event Management Team and the Charlemagne Prize Foundation have put together a colourful programme for Aachen's citizens on Wednesday and Thursday. The events on stage on both days will be compered by Bernd Büttgens, Spokesman for the City of Aachen, and Rick Takvorian, Head of the Event Management Team of the city's cultural sector. The party starts on Wednesday at 4 pm when all the information stands and tents on the Katschhof open – and carries on until late Thursday evening with lost of music, entertainment, two encounters with the Charlemagne Prize Laureate and plenty of information. On the Katschhof stage on Wednesday from 6 pm, the Heinsberg-born singer and songwriter Daniel Wirtz will put in an appearance as a talk show guest. He will also be singing the song "Das verheißene Glück" (the promise of happiness) during the Charlemagne Prize Award Ceremony in a crossover with the Aachen Symphony Orchestra.

Charlemagne Youth Prize

Today, Tuesday 8th May, the Coronation Hall in Aachen's historic Town Hall is devoted to the Charlemagne Youth Prize. In cooperation with the European Parliament, the Charlemagne Prize Foundation annually invites submissions for this prize, and enjoys overwhelming response to and participation in the competition. Young people from all EU Member States can submit their ideas and projects for a united and successful Europe. The finalists arrived in Aachen yesterday (7th May) and will find out today which project the jury has decided to award the Charlemagne Youth Prize to. The event begins today (Tuesday) at 11 am. The European Parliament will be represented by its Vice President, Rainer Wieland.

Charlemagne Prize Europe Forum

The winners of the Charlemagne Youth Prize will then also attend the Charlemagne Prize Europe Forum on Wednesday (9th May) and take part in the discussion there. "New momentum for Europe" is the title of the Forum, which will take place in Aachen's "Altes Kurhaus". From 10 am onwards and into the afternoon, 80 high-ranking international experts will be discussing the future chances of a united Europe. Impulse statements will be given by the Ambassador of Spain María Victoria Morera Villuendas, by Marija Kolak, President of the Federal Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR), by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, former co-president of the European Greens / European Free Alliance in the European Parliament, and by the President of the European Youth Forum Luis Alvarado Martínez.

Eminent experts attending the discussion in the afternoon session of the Forum, titled "Initiative for Europe", will include the philosopher Prof. Dr. Peter Sloterdijk, Director of the TV channel WDR Jörg Schönenborn and the publicist Roger de Weck.

Security during the Charlemagne Prize Award

The long list of personalities requiring protection and the large number of police being deployed for that protection may have adverse consequences for the general public on both Charlemagne Prize days. On 9th and 10th May there will be various temporary road closures in the city centre in the vicinity of the Cathedral and the Town Hall. Corresponding no-parking zones will be established in good time. As the Chief of Police Dirk Weinspach already stated at a press conference last week: "The Aachen Police will ensure that security is maintained. This will also mean some negative impacts for individual members of the public. We will do our best to keep such impacts as minimal as possible."

Head of Operations Helmut Lennartz added: "Because of his year's particular circumstances, police measures will be more wide-ranging this year. The Aachen Police are well prepared for this large-scale deployment and are working in close collaboration with the City of Aachen. “ One result of this collaboration is an information sheet which is currently being distributed to residents of the inner-city area and which provides details of the various security measures, road closures and no-parking zones.

Mercedes-Benz provides the vehicles

The Aachen subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz traditionally provides the fleet of vehicles used during the award of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen. "For the Aachen subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, this service signifies our deep commitment to Aachen. It is a great honour, every year, to be permitted to support this prestigious event celebrating the spirit of Europe," says Matthias Hindemith (Daimler AG Dales Director Rheinland Pkw). The fleet for the Charlemagne Prize consists of 25 vehicles of all models that are deployed during the annual award celebrations. The commitment to Aachen also has a long tradition. The Charlemagne Prize has been accompanied and supported by the Aachen branch of Mercedes-Benz for the last 30 years.

Numerous guests of honour

The Charlemagne Prize Award Ceremony will also be attended by Federal Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz, Minister of the Economy Peter Altmaier and Minister of Justice Katarina Barley, NRW Minister President Armin Laschet, President of the NRW State Parliament André Kuper, as well as NRW Minister Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, Professor Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Herbert Reul, Joachim Stamp, Hendrik Wüst and State Secretary Serap Güler. The guest list continues with CDU General Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, President of the Jewish Central Council in Germany Dr. Josef Schuster, Assistant Bishop Evmenios von Lefka of the Greek-Orthodox Metropolis Germany, the Minister President of the German-Speaking Community of Belgium Oliver Paasch, Theo Bovens, Governor of the Netherlands Province of Limburg and the Governor of the Belgian Province of Limburg Herman Reynders, Aachen's Bishop Helmut Dieser, the Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, District President Gisela Walsken, numerous honorary consuls as well as the General Consul of the French Republic Vincent Joseph Muller and Member of the European Parliament Sabine Verheyen. IN addition to many other guests of honour, numerous political representatives as well as ambassadors, representatives of churches and religious communities have also confirmed that they will be attending. In all, about 850 persons will attend the ceremony in the Coronation Hall.

Information on the Charlemagne Prize

Emmanuel Macron will be the 60^th recipient of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen. Last year, the British historian Timothy Garton Ash was awarded the prize; in 2016 the award went to Pope Francis.

The International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen ranks as one of the most important European awards. Since 1950, it has been awarded to persons and institutions in recognition of services in the interest of European unification. Early laureates includes Konrad Adenauer (1954), the European Commission (1969), King Juan Carlos I of Spain (1982), Francois Mitterand and Helmut Kohl (1988), Václav Havel (1991), Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (1996), the US President Bill Clinton (2000), Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker (2006), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2008), Jean-Claude Trichet (2011) and Martin Schulz (2015), at that time President of the European Parliament. In March 2004, Pope John Paul II was awarded an extraordinary Charlemagne Prize, which was presented to him in Rome.

The award consists of a Certificate of Honour and a Medal bearing the oldest seal of the City of Aachen – dating from the 12th century and featuring an enthroned Charlemagne – on the front, and on the rear an inscription for the respective recipient of the award.