The European Parliament has awarded the Sakharov Prize every year since 1988 in memory of Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989), the Russian physicist and inventor of the hydrogen bomb, who in the 1970s set up a committee for the defence of human rights and political victims.
Programmas nolūks ir atbalstīt jauniešus, kas vēlas aktīvi piedalīties Eiropas demokrātiskajos procesos un piedalīties brīvprātīgā darba iniciatīvās.