SIR – It’s not often I agree with anything the EU does, but for once I applaud them for awarding the Sakharov human rights prize to Pakistani schoolgirl and campaigner Malala Yousafzai.

The 16-year-old, who was shot in the head by the Taliban a year ago for campaigning for better rights for girls, truly deserves the award.

The EU is good at chucking away money as if it’s going out of fashion, but I do not begrudge a penny of the £42,300 award to this brave schoolgirl.

It is right, as the European People’s Party leader Joseph Daul said, that “our hope for a better future stands in young people like Malala Yousafzai”.

Even though she now lives in this country, I have a nagging fear that she remains a target for extremists. I pray I am wrong and that she continues to be a shining beacon to us all for many, many years.

Jane Collins, UKIP MEP candidate, Main Road, Newport, Nr Brough, East Yorkshire