The Baltic Assembly will hold an award ceremony today to present its Prizes for Literature, Arts and Science, the Baltic Innovation Prize, and the Baltic Assembly Medals. The Prize for Literature goes to Peeter Sauter and the Innovation Prize to the Estonian branch of the IT-company TransferWise.

Sauter is receiving the Prize for his autobiographical novel Ära jäta mind rahule (Don’t Leave Me Be). The Prize for Art will go to Director Alvis Hermanis from the New Riga Theatre, and the Prize for Science to Vidas Gražulevičius for his achievements in materials chemistry. All three Prizes are worth 5,000 Euros.

The Baltic Assembly Prizes were set up in 1993 to cement the mutual interest of the Baltic states in preserving their national identities and dignity, to acknowledge distinguished achievements in literature, arts and science, and to strengthen the ties between the Baltic states in various fields of life.

The Prize for Literature is presented every year at the Baltic Assembly session to a worthy author for a novel, play, collection of poems, short stories or essays, or another work of literature written in Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian. The first edition of the work must have been published within the last three years.

The Baltic Innovation Prize, meant for the most innovative Baltic company, will be bestowed on TransferWise, an international money transfer service founded by Estonians.

The Estonian recipients of Baltic Assembly Medals will be Urmas Paet and Hannes Astok; the Medal will also be awarded to the Finnish historian Seppo Zetterberg. The Baltic Assembly Medals are awarded for distinguished achievements and special merits in strengthening and promoting Baltic unity and cooperation.

The Baltic Assembly Awards Ceremony will take place today at 8 p.m. in the Estonia Concert Hall.

The Baltic Assembly is an international organisation that promotes cooperation between the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian parliaments. It was founded on 8 November 1991 in Tallinn.