The final ceremony for the Routes Awards 2009, organised by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), was held on 26 January at the Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels. The ceremony was opened by ECF President, HRH Princess Laurentien.

The winners of this year's Awards are Borka Pavićević, the cultural activist and founding Director of Belgrade’s Centre for Cultural Decontamination, and Stefan Kaegi, the internationally-acclaimed Swiss theatre-maker. They received a prize of 25,000 euros.

Borka Pavićević has been recognised for keeping cultural diversity alive in a troubled region: she founded the Centre for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade in 1994, a vital cultural venue for bringing together independent intellectuals and avant-garde artists.

Stefan Kaegi has been awarded for his work as a contemporary theatre-maker; in particular, ECF wants to celebrate his piece Cargo-Sofia, which tells the stories of truck drivers working in a world of ever-shifting borders.

Launched in 2008, the Routes Princess Margriet Award is a tribute to HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands and it is an initiative of ECF in cooperation with the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, generously supported by the Association of Charity Lotteries in the European Union (ACLEU) and the Rabobank.

For more information, go to European Cultural Foundation website.