At the 4th annual Women in Europe awards, four women were recognized for their work in raising awareness for women's issues.
ADVERTISEMENTAt this year's ceremony, the spotlight was on Central Eastern Europe.
Three out of the four winners come from this region.
All eyes were on Laura Kövesi, who fought corruption in her native Romania, and now is set to become the first ever European chief prosecutor. She took home the Women in Power award.
"I don't think in this moment it is not important that I am a woman, it is important that I have huge experience, I have been a prosecutor for 24 years," Kövesi said.
However, being a woman could be an asset for her new position.
"You must participate in hearings of children or women that are victims of, for example, human trafficking and because you are a women you can establish a very good dialogue and you can obtain more than a male prosecutor," Kövesi said.
The fight against gender violence also took centre stage. Two winners from Bulgaria and Czechia were recognised for their work in this field
"For us it is important to adopt changes in the Bulgarian national legislation in order to prevent and to fight violence against women," human rights lawyer Milena Kadieva, who won Woman in Action, said.
Johanna Nejedlová received the Woman in Youth Activism award for her work co-founding KONSENT.
"The Czech society still doesn't see it as a big problem but still the numbers than each tenth women experiences rape during her lifetime so it is a huge issue," Nejedlová said.
The final award, Woman in Business, went to Eleonora Azzaoui and Vera Günther who are the founders of Mimycri, an organisation that designs and manufactures high-quality bags from rubber refugee boats.
The fourth annual edition of Women of Europe Awards recognised the achievements and ground-breaking work of the women making a change for the better in Europe. The event was jointly organised by the European Movement International and the European Women’s Lobby at the BELvue Museum, in Brussels. Euronews' European Affairs correspondent Méabh Mc Mahon served as master of ceremonies.