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In brief

Prince Albert II receives SEP Gold Medal for action on oceans and the environment

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© Michael Alesi / Prince's Palace

The Sovereign joins a select list of great French names to have been awarded the ‘Grande Médaille d’Or’.

While the Nobel Prize recognises individuals who have brought the greatest benefit to humanity, the SEP Gold Medal honours exceptional services to the cause of progress.

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On Monday, near the Elysée Palace, Prince Albert II received the Gold Medal of the Société d’Encouragement au Progrès (SEP) at the Cercle de l’Union Interalliée in front of around a hundred invited guests. It is the Society’s highest accolade, and has been awarded every year since 1908.

prince-albert-ii-remise-Médaille-or-Encouragement-Progrès
© Michael Alesi / Prince’s Palace

Prestigious names have received the medal since the Society was founded. Among them, Louis Lépine in 1910, Louis Lumière in 1924, Léon Gaumont in 1930, Marcel Pagnol in 1961, and more recently Luc Ferry, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse and Thomas Pesquet.

“Prince Albert is very committed to defending the oceans and healthy, intelligent agriculture, and we owe him a great deal. Future generations will owe him a great deal. The SEP is here to shine a spotlight on men and women who are doing something for humanity,”  the Society’s president Jean-François Roubaud told Monaco Info.

The Sovereign said he was “very happy and very honoured to receive this distinction,” in his speech just after being decorated. “Thank you for allowing me to join the list of recipients who have gone before me,”  he added.