Saami Council receives Coppieters award in Brussels

On 25 March 2026, the Coppieters Foundation recognised the Saami Council – Sámiráđđi with the  Coppieters Award for its exceptional and long-standing commitment to advocating for cultural and linguistic diversity, collective rights, and the recognition of the Sámi people, as well as for promoting the ideals of equality, sustainability, and peace.

The event, held at L42 – Rue de la loi, Brussels, brought together members of the European Parliament, civil society representatives, academics, and media correspondents, who gathered to celebrate a milestone: the tenth edition of the Coppieters Awards and, for the first time since the creation of the awards, the recognition was presented to an organisation, not an individual.

Antonia Luciani, President of the Coppieters Foundation, opened the ceremony and presented the award.  She underlined the historic nature of this edition: “Ten years, ten editions and for the first time in our history, the Coppieters Award is not granted to an individual, but to an organisation. Because some of the most enduring struggles for justice, dignity, and self-determination are carried not by one person alone, but by entire communities, united across borders and across generations.”

Luciani highlighted the Saami Council’s founding in 1956 and its role as the oldest indigenous peoples’ organisation in Europe, gathering Saami member organisations from Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. She praised their long history of sustained advocacy: “Seventy years of dialogue and defense for recognition of the Saami people, for democracy and social cohesion and for their fight against climate change”.

She also spoke of a personal solidarity, as a Corsican,  to express a deep connection to the values of the Sámi people and understading of the struggles for cultural recognition, linguistic rights, and self-determination.

Diana Riba, Member of the European Parliament, praised the Saami Council’s work against a backdrop of mounting pressures. She reflected on a moment of geopolitical uncertainty, environmental rollback, and challenges to minority rights across Europe, arguing that it is precisely in such times that the Saami Council’s values carry their deepest meaning: dialogue over division, sustainability over short-term gain, dignity over exclusion.

Riba commended the Saami Council for its work in strengthening the international visibility of Sámi culture, and for consistently advocating for the right to self-determination, democratic participation, and meaningful consultation in decisions affecting Sámi lands and livelihoods. “Recognising the Sámi people, and the principles they stand for, is not only a matter of justice,” she said. “It is a commitment to an Europe and a world that is more inclusive, more diverse, more sustainable, and more peaceful.”

The ceremony concluded with an emotional acceptance speech by Per-Olof Nutti, President of the Saami Council, who dedicated the award to all Saami communities and to the generations of people who have carried their culture forward since the Council’s founding in 1956.

Nutti spoke of the distinctive way in which Sámi culture transmits knowledge across generations: through the words of elders who speak of the land, of snow conditions and weather patterns, of the specific places where reindeer rest. By passing these stories from generation to generation, he explained, “elders place a sacred responsibility on young people: to pay attention, to listen, and to remember. It is a responsibility that becomes all the more urgent when the connection between youth and land is threatened by mounting external social pressures. We risk losing the very tools we need to navigate a changing world,” he warned.

In his closing words, Nutti drew a powerful connection between the defence of indigenous rights and the fate of the planet itself: “This award is a recognition that the struggle for the rights of the Saami people is inseparable from the struggle for the planet.”

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This award and the Coppieters Foundation is financially supported by the European Parliament. The European Parliament is not liable for the content of the event nor for the opinions of the speakers at the awards ceremony.

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