European Medal of Tolerance Ivo Josipovic and Ex-President of Serbia Boris Tadic at the European Parliament in Brussels by European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation Chairman Alexander Kwasniewski and ECTR Co-Chairman Viatcheslav Kantor, in recognition of the Balkan statesmens’ “significant contribution to promoting, seeking, safeguarding or maintaining tolerance on the European continent”. In 2015 Samuel Eto'o, a famous football-player, was awarded for his fight against racism in football. The European Medal of Tolerance for the 2016 was conferred on film director Andrey Konchalovsky "for his cultural achievements focused on preserving the tragic memory of the past including his film "Paradise". The European Medal of
History of the European Union (1993–2004) was created on 26 July 1995 with the signing of the Europol convention. Due to concerns over the proposal of Jean-Luc Dehaene as President of the European Commission, with the United Kingdom not wishing another Jacques Delors, Jacques Santer (then-Prime Minister of Luxembourg) was proposed as a less federalist option. However, due to this. he was seen as being the "second choice" which weakened his position, with the European Parliament approving him only by a narrow majority. He did however flex his powers over the nominations for the other Commissioners. The President gained this power under the Maastricht Treaty that