Members of the European Parliament have started a campaign to collect signatures for nominating a prominent Russian human rights group, Memorial, for the Nobel Peace Prize.

      The initiative came from the European People's Party (EPP) members from Poland, Roza Thun and Krzysztof Lisek. The deadline for candidacy submission to the Nobel Committee is late January 2014.

      The European People's Party group, which includes the Polish Civil Platform party and Polish Peasant Party, is the biggest and the most influent political faction of the European Paliament.

      The Memorial organization does investigations, descriptions and documentations of political repressions during communist dictatorship. It also reveals causes of political repressions in modern society and lends assistance to political prisoners and ethnic minorities in Russia. Members of the Memorial organization repeatedly suffer from threats and persecutions.