Sandi Curk wins European Citizen's Prize for helping Ukraine refugees
Brussels/Ljubljana, 29 June - Sandi Curk, the chief of a civil protection regional unit who played an indispensable part in a project to help Ukrainian refugees in Slovenia, is among this year's 38 recipients of the European Citizen's Prize, the European Parliament announced on Thursday.
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Sandi Curk, head of Civil Protection in the Notranjska region.
Photo: Sani Karić/STA
Curk, the head of the Notranjska unit of the Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, helped the Government Office for the Support and Integration of Migrants provide accommodation for 120 Ukrainian refugees, including orphans, who were displaced due to Russian aggression against their country.
He was in charge of finding accommodation for mothers and their underage children in Postojna in the Notranjska region.
Curk was nominated for the prize by MEP Ljudmila Novak (NSi/EPP), and his nomination enjoyed the support of the remaining six Slovenian MEPs: Romana Tomc, Franc Bogovič, Milan Brglez, Matjaž Nemec, Irena Joveva and Klemen Grošelj.
As a coordinator between local communities and state authorities, he also played a major role in other municipalities at the start of the Ukraine war, the Parliament said, noting that the project was an expression of European solidarity and common values.
"Sandi Curk [...] is a man with a capital M, philanthropist, volunteer and humanitarian at heart," reads the press release, adding that he participated in many other humanitarian campaigns, including efforts to help Bosnian and Kosovo refugees in the 1990s and victims of recent earthquakes in Croatia and Turkey.
The annual European Citizen's Prize rewards projects run by citizens and organisations in the EU which demonstrate European cooperation, mutual understanding, the promotion of European common values and fundamental rights. This year's winners, who come from 25 countries, are due to accept the awards at a ceremony in Brussels in November.