Best Europa stamp competition 2024
PostEurop is proud to present the 2024 “Underwater Flora & Fauna” EUROPA Stamps entries. Till 9 September 2024, you can vote for your most beautiful EUROPA Stamp. Click on the images to see the full size.
PostEurop is proud to present the 2024 “Underwater Flora & Fauna” EUROPA Stamps entries. Till 9 September 2024, you can vote for your most beautiful EUROPA Stamp. Click on the images to see the full size.
In 2023, PostEurop celebrated its 30th anniversary.
To mark the occasion, they produced an anniversary logo that was used by several postal administrations to produce a stamp issue.
These include Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Serbia.
The Isle of Man added this logo on their 2023 Europa stamp issue and Poland & Romania have both issued a postal stationary.
I may be forgetting some ...
A few weeks ago PostEurop launched their new logo !
Just as a reminder, PostEurop took over from the CEPT the responsibility for issuing EUROPA stamps.
You can read more about it in the part IV of my Europa stamps' history.
This new logo doesn't have a huge impact for us Europa stamps collectors, as it is not used on Europa stamps issues.
Though, the former logo was used once only (if I'm not wrong). On the second stamp of the 2000 Europa issue of Monaco
And Belgium used it in the edge of the mini-sheet of their 2003 issue. They did it to celebrate the 10 years of PostEurop.
Last year, we were in Istanbul, to hold our Philatelic Forum. After reviewing the EUROPA stamp competition results survey, we took many decisions impacting the future of EUROPA stamps. It was time to adopt a new strategy beginning with the legal framework. There was a need to officially clarify the situation with regards to the use of the EUROPA logo and need to adhere and respect logo guidelines before issuing EUROPA stamps. This new logo was launched and registered internationally.
Starting from January 2012, this logo will be the only authorized trademark, bringing us an important step further in the right direction. As mentioned earlier, 2011 was a transition year for our philatelists. Needless to say, we had been very busy all year round with the EUROPA 2011 theme: Forests, which was aligned and realized in full collaboration with the United Nations Program, International Year of Forests. Our First Jury prize Other important aspect discussed in Istanbul was on increasing the votes and growing the coverage of the competition whilst rebuilding the link we had with Philatelists. Therefore, we introduced two innovations: a Jury Prize and a collection album. The Jury Prize was managed by David E. Failor.
Our first Jury was composed of independent designers or philatelists experts. We had Cyprus Post (Cyprus) emerge as winner of the very first Jury Prize. An announcement was made at the Brussels Town Hall amongst hundreds of passionate philatelists… And the winner goes to... The Jury prize was also a teaser for the main competition: the most beautiful EUROPA stamp of the year. The classic online competition ran well this year, as we received more than 5,500 votes (compared to 1,305 last year) with PTT Turkish Post (Turkey) emerging as a clear winner despite tough competition. The second and third place went to Magyar Posta (Hungary) and CTT Correios (Portugal). For Hungary, it was their 5th time in a row at winning a prize. During the Plenary Assembly Dinner, Mr. Jan Sertons, who was part of the Jury handed out the Jury prize to Mr. Andreas Gregoriou, the CEO of the Cyprus Post (Cyprus). Mr. Jean-Paul Forceville, our Chairman, handed out the Gold EUROPA stamp prize proudly to Mr. Osman Tural, CEO of PTT Turkist Post (Turkey). Behold, another surprise The biggest surprise was kept for the morning after. On every desk, of every delegate was the beautiful and rare EUROPA Collector Album (below).
This limited edition album was designed and produced by PostEurop headquarters. The richness of it comes from all the stamps we received from our members. 41 operators participated in the project and there were in total 69 real EUROPA stamps in the album. This Collector Album will be used in future as the official list of EUROPA published stamps. Only stamps that strictly fulfilled the official guidelines will be included in these albums. Building on this, the 2012 EUROPA theme will be “Visit…” and the album can be used as a tourism promotional tool in which each Europa stamp presents a “window” to discover more about our members’ country. Another innovative element will be the use of new technologies such as Quick Response (QR) codes and augmented reality (AR) to make EUROPA Stamps more interactive by enabling viewers to further discover more things behind the stamps and virtually travel across Europe. PostEurop believes that this edition will be even stronger than the 2011 edition. As it will touch your country, it will be important to have the most attractive, recent and accurate information possible as well as the best support possible. And on that, PostEurop really counts on you!
2011: an exceptional EUROPA vintage ...
This year, we can say that the EUROPA Stamp is opening a new chapter in its history.
It is true it displays a new logo. But we all know a new facelift was not enough to bring the Europa stamp to the height it deserves. Some fundamental changes were needed. The new logo is not the only novelty this year. Indeed, the year 2011 will be a special year in many respects. The theme chosen for 2011 is “Forests”, to coincide with the International Year of the Forests declared by the United Nations. We hope this collaboration will materialise in a formal and symbolic way with the issuing of a United Nations stamp displaying our new Europa logo, which would make it a first of its kind.
Over the coming years, we will strive towards increasing the Europa Stamp’s popularity, enhancing its European dimension and making easier exchanges between stamp lovers and collectors. This openness is not a coincidence, but rather a will to bring the Europa stamp towards a broader dimension. To do this, we will work on expanding the communication around the promotion of Europa stamps and in particular around the Europa Stamp Competition.
Furthermore, we are also going to review the election process by giving it a real artistic and philatelic dimension. The online voting procedure will be kept but the 10 most voted stamps will be submitted to a jury of professionals from the philatelic and the graphic world. This jury of European experts will meet in Brussels in September to elect the most beautiful Europa stamp 2011. We will ensure a media coverage equal to the event and to the work of each philatelic department. The winner will be announced at the Grand Place of Brussels, the most beautiful town square in the world, during a special ceremony in the presence of distinguished guests. No doubt this vintage will be particularly good...