Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaitė Will Present Brüning and Mellon Prizes in Vienna on Saturday

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Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaitė receiving the Charlemagne Prize in Aachen today

Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaitė, who has just received the Charlemagne Prize of Aachen for her successful austerity policies in her country, has agreed to present the Heinrich Brüning and Andrew Mellon Prizes in Vienna on May 11. The 'Creditanstalt' Award Committee was able to induce her to extend her stay in Central Europe to serve in this important capacity. 

The Award Committee is convinced that no one is better fitted to present these prizes than the Lithuanian President, who in her acceptance speech stated that

Today Germany plays the leading role in ensuring European stability and does not allow us to wander from the path of trust in Europe. That is why it is Germany which gets the strongest criticism – and also our deepest respect. [reported by 15min.lt]

European Parliament President Martin Schulz, in his congratulations, praised the Lithuanian president, saying that she says what she means, is not afraid to speak her mind, calls a spade a spade, has low tolerance for bureaucracy, is a tough negotiator and knows how to kowtow appropriately to Germany. [15min.lt] These qualities undoubtedly played some role in selecting her for the Charlemagne Prize.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė is thoroughly familiar with this year's prize recipients, Olli Rehn for the Brüning Prize, and Wolfgang Schäuble and Jeroen Dijsselbloem for the Mellon Prize, from her term as a European commissioner.

In presenting the two 'Creditanstalt' Prizes, she is expected to highlight her economic success in Lithuania as a model for other crisis countries, where real GDP, after first declining by 15% in 2009, has now recovered to just 5% below its 2008 value, while the population, by exporting small children as biofuel to Germany, could be reduced by all of 10% (the latter measure being inspired by Ireland's great success with Swift's A Modest Proposal).

The 'Creditanstalt' will be most happy to welcome President Dalia Grybauskaitė to its historical quarters on Saturday for the award ceremony.