Johannes Rau 07.11.2000 131 914 Hungary President Ferenc Mádl 12.12.2000 177 944 Malta President Guido de Marco 02.05.2001 233 1049 Ireland President Mary McAleese 24.05.2001 241 1057 France President Jacques Chirac 23.07.2001 243 1124 Awarded by President Arnold Rüütel ( 8 October 2001 – 9 October 2006 ) Turkey President Ahmet Necdet Sezer 18.04.2002 377 141 Luxembourg Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg 05.05.2003 416 332 Portugal President Jorge Sampaio 12.05.2003 417 408 ( 08.05.2003 ) Bulgaria President Georgi Parvanov 11.06.2003 435 414 Romania President Ion Iliescu 23.10.2003 446 451 [6] Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos 08.01.2004 449 451 Italy President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi 20.04.2004 498 581 Slovakia President Ivan Gašparovič 12.10.2005 599 896 Hungary President László Sólyom 27.03.2006 688 994 Awarded by President Toomas Hendrik Ilves ( 9 October 2006 – 10 October 2016 ) United Kingdom Queen Elizabeth II 19.10.2006 693 2 Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili 07.05.2007 739 148 Japan Emperor Akihito 24.05.2007 740 150 Spain King Juan Carlos I 09.07.2007 741 168 Portugal President Aníbal Cavaco Silva 24.09.2008 783 269 Netherlands Queen (now Princess) Beatrix 14.05.2008 824 280 Belgium King Albert II 10.06.2008 837 290 Latvia President Valdis Zatlers 07.04.2009 872 460 Romania President Traian Băsescu 12.04.2011 968 881 Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev 20.04.2011 970 885 Malta President George Abela 31.05.2012 988 98 Latvia President Andris Bērziņš 05.06.2012 1001 99 Lithuania President Dalia Grybauskaitė 27.05.2013 1045 266 Germany President Joachim Gauck 03.07.2013 1087 305 Finland President Sauli Niinistö 09.05.2014 1150 429 Slovakia President Andrej Kiska 19.10.2015 1233 682 Awarded by President Kersti Kaljulaid ( 10 October 2016 – 11 October 2021) Netherlands King Willem-Alexander 12.06.2018 1283 265 Italy President Sergio Mattarella 04.07.2018 1298 294 Latvia President Raimonds Vējonis 10.04.2019 1324 440 Portugal President Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa 15.04.2019 1339 442 Slovenia President Borut Pahor 02.09.2019 1344 473 Austria President Alexander Van der Bellen 21.05.2021 1368 744 Romania President Klaus Iohannis 15.06.2021 1370 755