The Nobel Peace Prize is a very important message for everybody, as it reminds people that peace is a virtue that they tend to take for granted while forgetting that it was one of the major reasons for establishing the bloc, the PM's cabinet said.

According to his office, the current peaceful state allows the EU members to only attend to economic development and to improving the welfare of their citizens.

It is the fruit of years of efforts and the members' understanding that peaceful resolution to conflicts was the only path to sustainable development.

While Europe is facing an economic crisis, it is capable of carrying out the measures that will take the bloc and the world on the path to sustainable development, the PM's office added.

Türk meanwhile stressed that the prize came to the right hands as the EU was "the most successful peace project in the history of humankind".

"After centuries of conflict, the European continent has reached a high level of welfare, democracy, rule of law, respect of human rights and security through an irreversible process of unifying after the WWII. It has reached irreversible peace, which is the greatest value," the president's office said in a press release.

According to the president, the prize gives credibility to EU efforts and charges it to continue its peace efforts at the global level.

The news was also welcomed by parliamentary EU Affairs Committee head Roman Jakič, MEPs Ivo Vajgl (ALDE/Zares), Milan Zver (EPP/SDS) and Romana Jordan (EPP/SDS) and EU commissioner from Slovenia Janez Potočnik.

Potočnik stressed the prize was an encouragement for believing in the EU and its future, and an acknowledgement to all who have contributed to the EU as we know it and who believe in its vision of peace, stability and harmony among nations based on mutual respect.

He also said he was very happy that one of this year's Nobel Prize winners for physics was French researcher Serge Haroche, who was financed by the EU when Potočnik served as science and technology commissioner in his previous term.