The EFR World Leader Cycle 2012 will take place this evening, hosted by Erik Peekel. Starting at 18:00, there will be a few introductory speeches, as well as the Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius will be there to receive his World Leader award and give a short speech entitled “Crisis in Europe: lessons learnt, lessons ignored”. Drinks and music will follow.
EFR, the Erasmus School of Economics Association gives out the award for exceptional economic achievements, and this year the World Leader Cycle Award will be presented to Kubilius by the former Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. In a letter sent to Kubilius by the EFR, the organization thanks and admires the efforts of the Prime Minister to restore the Lithuanian economy after being hit hard by the economic crisis.
Public enemy #1
Furthermore, EFR said that “many people admire and are inspired by your interests in political science, history, and knowledge-based economy”. However, according to Sprinter, a public opinion research agency, Kubilius was seen as fit to be in the office by 4.0% of the respondents in December, and 89.3% were unsatisfied with the largely unpopular measures that Kubilius government was taking throughout his time as the Prime Minister.
International popularity
Despite being not the most popular public figure in Lithuania, Kubilius did bring Lithuanian economy to grow the fastest in EU during the third quarter of last year, says EFR, and the international economic community sees him as the perfect choice to get the World Leader Award this year.
Update
In reaction to the comments that this article received, we asked for a comment by Laura Cramer, the international officer of the current EFR board. She explains that the decision is made by the eight board members of EFR based on their individual research of newspapers, television, and the internet. This year, the topic was “Out of the Box” and Kubilius, contrary to the belief of many that the award goes to whoever first responds to the invitation out of a dozen, had no competition, according to Cramer. Furthermore, public opinion, which in Kubilius’ case is not very high, is taken into consideration but is not a decisive factor. Cramer hopes that the Award increases discussion among students, and by awarding Kubilius the Award this year for his unconventional economic approach, it will “inspire the future leaders of the world by bringing them into contact with an inspirational story of a current leader”. MD
