The European Investment Bank, the European Union's financing institution, presented the 2001 EIB Prize during a ceremony at Bourglinster Castle on Monday, 10 September 2001.

  • First prize, worth EUR 15 000, was awarded to Erich Gundlach and Ludger Wössmann, of the Kiel Institute for World Economy, for a dissertation entitled "Better Schools for Europe".
  • Second prize, worth EUR 7 000, acknowledged the work of Jan Fidrmuc, of the Centre for Studies on European Integration in Bonn, on "Democracy in Transition Economies".
  • Third prize, worth EUR 3 000, went to Gilles Duranton and Vassilis Monastiriotis, of the London School of Economics, for an essay on "The Evolution of the UK North-South Divide".

This two-yearly award was created in 1983 on the occasion of the EIB's 25th anniversary with a view to recognising financial and economic analyses, research and studies relating to topical debates on the future of the European Union.

The Prize Jury, chaired by Mr Jacques-François Thisse of the Catholic University of Louvain, consists of Messrs Alexandre Lamfalussy of the Institute for European Studies, Edmond Malinvaud of the "Collège de France", Giorgio Basevi of the University of Bologna and Alfred Steinherr, EIB Chief Economist.

The winning dissertations were presented at a conference held at the EIB on 11 September. The texts of these essays are published in EIB Papers, Vol. 6 No. 2.