Parliament has included three jailed members of the punk group Pussy Riot on the shortlist of the prestigious prize named after Soviet human rights activist Andrei Sakharov.
The decision was hailed by German deputy Werner Schulz who nominated the band for the award.
“Andrei Sakharov himself would be extremely pleased to see the recognition of these creative and courageous young women,” said Green MEP Schulz.
Their nomination has incensed the Russian authorities who have branded it as “provocative”.
But, on Wednesday, a parliament spokesman said that their sentencing to two years in prison focused “the world’s attention on the unscrupulous restriction of civil rights and the absence of the rule of law in Russia”.
The other finalists are two Iranian opposition figures – Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer, and film director Jafar Panahi — as well as the imprisoned Belarusian human rights defender, Ales Belyatsky.
Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced to two years in prison for their “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour cathedral in February.
They received the “For freedom of thought” nomination from Schulz in September.
The winner of the EU’s main human rights prize will be announced in the Strasbourg plenary on December 12.
The Sakharov Prize, which comes with a €50,000 award, is given to individuals and organisations who have made a special contribution to the protection of human rights.
Nelson Mandela and Soviet dissident Anatoly Marchenko, who died in prison in 1986, were the first to be awarded the prize in 1988.
The prize has been awarded since 1988, and previous winners include former South African President Nelson Mandela, East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao and Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya.
Most of the finalists this year are imprisoned.