The Europe Prize for the Theatre was instituted in 1986 by the Comitato Taormina Arte (Taormina Arte Committee) with the approval of, and a contribution from, the European Commission. The initiative immediately set itself apart from the usual theatrical awards, not only because of the size of the EC contribution (60,000 Euros), but also because of the personalities called to sit on the jury and, above all, the motivations for the award itself. The desire for cultural exchange, combined with a symbolic gesture of peace, was expressed in the first jury's recognition of Ariane Mnouchkine and her Théâtre du Soleil, and in the presentation of a special award, presented by the then EC Commissioner of Culture, Carlo Ripa di Meana, to the Greek actress, Melina Mercouri, who had become Minister of Culture in her own country (Greece), and had contributed so much to the politcal and cultural world. When Mnouchkine received her award she dedicated it to the "other Europe;" it was a "thrilling, prescient coup de théâtre." The second Premio Europa constituted another step forward because the study and reflection on the work of the prize winner that followed the presentation of the award, set the style for future years. That year the award was presented to Peter Brook whose genius exerted a tremendous fascination on everyone who participated in the three-day meeting in Taormina, the highlight of which was a memorable open dialogue between the great director and Grotowski, accompanied by a series of reports, testimonies, demonstrations with actors and video screenings, documented in the book entitled Gli anni di Peter Brook (The Years of Peter Brook). Since then the Premio Europa has been under the aegis of the Council of Europe and of Unesco, and enjoyed the collaboration of the International Society of Theatre Critics. The third year was particularly important because the Premio Europa was assigned to Giorgio Strehler, who proposed a much hoped for collaboration between the Union des Théâtres de l'Europe and the Premio Europa, and also because the New Theatrical Realities award was instituted and presented to Russian director Anatolij Vassil'ev, who held a workshop in which he demonstrated his approach to theatre. The reading and critique of scenes from Elvire et la passion téatrâle by Jouvet, given by Strehler and Giulia Lazzarini, perfectly summed up the significance of the event; in fact, at this sixth Premio Europa, we shall be presenting a collection of notes on that event entitled: Strehler o la passione teatrale (Strehler: A Passion for the Theatre). At the fourth Premio Europa, after a moment of reflection between the announcement of the winners by the jury and the presentation of the awards; namely, the Premio Europa to Heiner MŸller, and the New Theatrical Realities award to Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, for his innovative sets, to the Comediants for their street performances, and to Eimuntas Nekrosius for his dramatic works, the hopes of the Committee and the Juries were realized when the Premio Europa was transformed into a three-day event, featuring not only workshops in which a great number of theatre people, and not a few Italian and foreign directors participated, but also many creative and spectacular events.

The fifth year, marked by the return of Vassil'ev and Nekrosius, focussed on Bob Wilson, who presented Persephone after being awarded the Premio Europa by a jury which, for the first time, went outside Europe to pay tribute to a versatile artist who has contributed to the development of theatre within and beyond European borders. The New Theatrical Realities award, on the other hand, was shared by the Théatre de Complicité, one of the most original British companies to emerge in recent years, and to the new discovery Carte Blanche-Compagnia della Fortezza which for years has developed the concept of theatre as a way of claiming freedom and human dignity, putting on stage actors/non-actors incarcerated in the prisons of Volterra.

The last Premio Europa was also notable for its performances, conferences, moments of reflection and study, and video screenings.

The international jury of the VI Europe Theatre Prize, chaired by Jack Lang, awarded the Europe Prize to Luca Ronconi and the IV Europe Prize New Theatrical Realities to Christoph Marthaler. The prize-giving crowned the three-day festival dedicated entirely to theatre, with two international conferences on the theme of "Live theatre: information, criticism and education" and the Ronconi Method, which involved many people from the world of culture and showbusiness. They included Alessandro Baricco, Gae Aulenti, Luciano Damiani, Mariangela Melato, Marisa Fabbri and Ronconi himself. An episode of his Fratelli Karamazov was presented along with a number of preview scenes of Pirandello's Questa sera si recita a soggetto. This provided a tangible test of his method, his ability to read a text and find the right interpretation. Christoph Marthaler is clearly an extraordinary personality: he has been in the limelight ever since his debut and is openly described as "a genius" by the international community - during a conference/meeting in Taormina as well. During the three-day event, Robert Wilson presented Der Ozeanflug as part of the section Ritorni (Returns). The work was taken from the works of Bertolt Brecht, Heiner Müller and Feodor Dostoevsky and was presented by the Berliner Ensemble on the occasion of the centenary of Bertolt Brecht’s birth.

The 7^th Europe Theatre Prize was awarded to Pina Bausch world famous dancer and choreographer, for having literally invented a genre that is a combination of theatre, dance, music, and visual arts. The 5^th Europe Prize New Theatricals Realities went to the Royal Court Theatre, not as a reward for its successes over the last forty years, but in recognition of the support it has given to a whole new generation of writers including Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, Jez Butterworth, Conor Mc Pherson and Martin McDonag. Various sections of the four-day event were devoted to the great artist: "Following Pina’s Tracks", an international conference, was the occasion for a study and analysis of Pina Bausch’s dance-theatre; videos and photographic exhibition traced the most important stages of her career. Immediatly after the prize giving, there was a performance of Small Collection, pieces chosen from the choreographer’s repertoire, especially reworked for the Europe Theatre Prize and executed by the Wuppertal Tanztheatre. The Royal Court Theatre’s intense activity was represented by "The Royal Court on Stage", consisting of reading and scene taken from Shopping and Fucking, Mojo and Attempts to her Life performed by Royal court actors. The exclusive Italian version of the outstanding play The Weir was directed by Ian Rickson, the theatre’s art director. Christoph Marthaler, who was awarded the last Europe Prize New Theatrical Realities, returned to Taormina with his new play Die Spezialisten:a thè dansant for survival. The side events included "Writing and Performing: examples of new European drama proposed by the Jury of the Europe Prize" with Fiction d’hiver, a mise en espace produced by the Théàtre Ouvert and "The Art of the Actor: developments and changes over the last fifteen years", a debate organized by the Union des Théàtre de l’Europe, with the participation of Erland Josephson, one of Bergman’s favourite actors.