The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the European Union at a time when the 27-nation body is embroiled in a debt crisis that has sparked mass protests in Spain and Greece. The Nobel Committee cited the EU’s historical leadership, including efforts to rebuild the continent after World War II and promote stability after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But critics note that more recently the EU has backed crippling austerity cuts in struggling countries such as Greece, where new figures Thursday showed unemployment had risen above 25 percent in July. This year’s Nobel Prize for Literature went to the Chinese novelist Mo Yan. Critics accused the author of being too close to China’s ruling Communist government, a claim he denied Friday, saying his writing has always been on the side of the people.