BY CONSTANT BRAND
  Associated Press

  BRUSSELS - The European Union awarded Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas its top human rights prize Tuesday and pledged to support his efforts to bring democracy to his home country.

  The 2002 Sakharov Award honored his human rights activism, which dates to the 1960s when he was condemned to forced labor by the regime of President Fidel Castro.

  Payá said he had endangered himself and his family by traveling to Strasbourg, France, over the Cuban government's objection, to receive the award at the headquarters of the European Parliament.

  ''The day before I left, they broke down my door, they have threatened me and my family with death,'' he said.

  ``I was afraid, but you don't get paralyzed by fear, you go on.''

  As recently as last weekend, it was not clear whether Cuban authorities in Havana would allow Payá to travel to France to receive the award.

  A last-minute appeal by European Parliament President Pat Cox and Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar to Castro secured his first trip outside Cuba.

  Payá thanked the 15-nation European Union for supporting the cause of human rights in Cuba.

  ''This prize is for all Cubans because I believe that . . . Europe wishes to say to them, you, too, are entitled to rights,'' he told the packed 626-seat legislature.

  ``There are thousands of men and women who are fighting in the teeth of persecution for the rights of all Cubans. Hundreds of them have been imprisoned solely for
  having proclaimed and stood up for those rights.''

  The $15,000 annual prize is named after the late Soviet physicist, dissident and Nobel peace laureate Andrei Sakharov.

  ''You represent for many Cubans today what Andrei Sakharov represented in the 1980s for many Soviet citizens. You represent hope,'' Cox told Payá. ``We recognize your personal courage . . . to use peace and not terror as the pathway to democracy in Cuba. We walk with you on your journey.''

  Payá, 50, founded Cuba's Christian Liberation Movement in 1987. The nonviolent opposition movement calls for deep political and economic changes in Cuba's communist system.

  He said he would use the prize money to fund the Varela Project, which gathers signatures petitioning the Cuban parliament for a referendum on basic human rights for all Cubans, including political prisoners.

  Organizers turned in 11,020 signatures in May.

  There has been no response from the government to date.