The European Parliament has awarded our Hungarian Brother, Imre Kozma, the European Citizen’s Prize 2016. This is the second time the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God has been honoured with this prestigious award. In 2014, the Order as a whole was given the award. Brother Imre received the prize on Friday, 23 September 2016, in the Aula Magna of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, together with his prize-winner, the Hungarian historian and archaeologist, Balazs Major.

As the MEP, György Hölvenyi, said, Brother Imre Kozma succeeded in “bearing witness to the sacred and the profane when, in the political system that existed before 1989, he was bold enough to work with young people knowing what he was risking“, and emphasised the merits of our Brother. After the fall of the Wall, Brother Imre was outstanding in his work to welcome in thousands of refugees from East Germany, as it was at the time, and to take in the refugees fleeing the Balkans War. His name is therefore indissolubly linked to “helping migrants and local needy people“. “My Europe“, said Brother Imre in his acceptance speech “was born of Christianity and cultivates values with Christian roots.“

Ordained priest in 1963, Brother Imre decided even then as a young priest to dedicate his life to the poor and needy. Before he entered the Order he had already set up charitable services in the parishes in which he worked. In 1989, he organised services and facilities to take in the thousands of refugees fleeing East Germany after the invasion of Budapest. That same year, he founded the Hungarian Maltese Charity of the Order of Malta in Hungary. In 1998 he applied to join the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God and made his solemn Profession in 2003. The following year he made a decisive contribution to restoring the Order in Hungary and succeeded in securing the return of substantial properties of the Order. Today, the Brothers of Saint John of God in Hungary once again manage hospitals in Budapest, Pécs and Vac, a retirement home at Erd and an old Turkish Baths establishment in Budapest. The Order’s houses in Hungary make up a Provincial Delegation of the Austrian Province, and their present Delegate is Brother Imre Kozma.

The European Citizen’s Prize, which was instituted in 2009 by the European Parliament, is awarded every year to individuals and organisations for their outstanding achievements in contributing to promoting European integration and the common values of the European Union.