The inaugural European Book Prize was awarded to
Belgium's prime minister
Guy Verhofstadt for
United States of Europe. The ceremony was held at the European Parliament in Brussels on 5 December 2007. Swedish crime fiction writer
Henning Mankell handed the prize to the winner. While giving the prize, Mankell said that the jury was sensitive to the political courage showed by the current prime minister of Belgium. He added that in a Europe which has a lot of self-doubt, which has a lot of questions about its own future, Guy Verhofstadt offered a clear proposal for the future. He gave reasons to believe in European constitution. While receiving the reward, Verhofstadt said, "When I wrote this book, I in fact meant it as a provocation against all those who didn't want the
European Constitution. Fortunately, in the end a solution was found with the treaty, that was approved." == Winners by country ==