The Paweł Adamowicz City Courage Award to be established by the European Committee of the Regions

In honour of the late mayor of Gdansk, Paweł Adamowicz, this is an award honouring tolerance and solidarity

To commemorate the tragic death of Gdańsk mayor Paweł Adamowicz, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) will establish the “Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Award for courage and excellence in the promotion of freedom, solidarity and equality”. At the next preliminary session 17-19 March, the Paweł Adamowicz Prize will be recognised and a winner of the award will be determined.

Up until his death in 2019, Gdańsk mayor Paweł Adamowicz was a defender of the freedom of speech, LGBTIQ societies and supportive of tolerance towards minorities. He also made Gdańsk’s accession to the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) in 2017, which was not well accepted by his opposition.

ICORN is an association of cities around the world committed to defending the freedom of speech and the writers who are oppressed for political reasons: be they in hiding, imprisoned or banned from publishing in their own country.

There's no place for discrimination or hatred

At the initiation of the City of Gdansk, the European People's Party (EPP-CoR) and ICORN, stated that the Paweł Adamowicz Prize serves as a reminder that discrimination will not be tolerated and the freedoms preserved in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights cannot be taken away.

“In January, two years have passed since the death of Paweł Adamowicz, who served as president of Gdańsk for 20 years and a member of the EPP-CoR, who died as a result of a brutal attack. The Committee of the Regions will set up an award to honor his memory. His work and commitment to tolerance, solidarity and peaceful coexistence remain a role model for all of us. This award will be a reminder that intolerance and hatred have no place in our society and that no one can take away the freedoms enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights,” EPP initiators wrote in their resolution.