Margrethe Vestager will receive the LutherRose 2022 for social responsibility and entrepreneurial courage at the 15th Luther Conference. With Margrethe Vestager, the Internationale Martin Luther Stiftung honours a personality "...who embodied the Reformation’s tradition of freedom and responsibility for the common good in an exemplary way with her life and professional work."
As Commissioner for Competition at the European Union, Margrethe Vestager has been campaigning for tax justice and fair market conditions since 2014 and takes analytically clear and courageous action against violations of free competition. In order to protect the interests of consumers, Vestager fights the economically damaging formation of cartels as well as the monopoly position of companies that endanger the market. She also does not shy away from confrontations with large, international technology firms.
Since 2019, Vestager has also been one of the executive EU Vice-Presidents and Commissioner for Digital Affairs. With the digital strategy "Europe Fit for the Digital Age", Vestager and the European Union want to bring data security and equality on the internet to the population and businesses, but also contribute to climate neutrality in Europe.
“I am very honoured to receive the LutherRose. As a politician I aim to create more fairness and trust in society. But what every politician knows is that when our decisions meet the real world, control slips right out of our hands. So it can be hard to know exactly what effect our actions will have. We have to trust in our values, and have the courage to act on them. Just like Luther did in Wittenberg in 1517” Margrethe Vestager said.
The laudation for the laureate will be held by her compatriot Bishop Peter Skov-Jakobsen. The Evangelical Lutheran clergyman has been Bishop of the Diocese of Copenhagen since 2009 and thus has the function of primus inter pares among the bishops of the Danish people's church.
The LutherConference and the awarding of the LutherRose 2022 will take place on Friday,11th November 2022 from 3.00 p.m. in the Hoflaankerk in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The Internationale Martin Luther Stiftung is registered in Eisenach with its offices at the Evangelisches Augustinerkloster (St Augustine’s) in Erfurt, the state capital of Thuringia. The aims of the foundation are to develop the basic impulses of the Reformation into a topic-related and outcome-oriented dialogue between Church, business, academia and politics and each year it awards a personality who exemplifies social responsibility to a particular degree.