Terms and Conditions
Who can participate?
Citizens and businesses of all EU Member States and who are at least 18 years old at the time of registration may submit their stories.
The staff and the families of those involved in the screening and pre-selection of stories may not submit their own stories. The staff and the families of those involved in the screening and pre-selection of stories may not submit their own stories.
How can I participate?
You may submit your story via this website during the submission period (for more details go to….). You can submit more than one story.
Competitors may submit their contributions/testimonials in any of these formats: video, audio, text (through the submission form), illustration (photo or drawing or graphics) with respect to these technical specifications:
(1) for audio and video: the maximum length is 2 minutes
(2) for illustrations : the maximum size allowed is A2
Competitors can send contributions in any of the 23 official languages of the European Union: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.
Stories submitted in any other way or that do not respect these terms and conditions will not be accepted.
How will the winning stories be selected?
Pre selection: The EC Representation in each Member State will select one story per country.
Selection: A Steering committee consisting of representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Polish Presidency will select five stories. The five selected stories will be published on this website.
Under which criteria will the stories be selected?
The story should concern a real barrier, not just an inconvenience inherent in cross border activities (language, cultural differences, distance). Economic and/or vital consequences for the concerned individual/organisation should be considerable.
When will the winner be selected?
The author of the winning design will be announced on 20 July 2011. For more details on the dates of the submission and selection procedure, go to….
What is the prize?
The best five stories and their protagonists will be filmed in a short clip and the authors will be invited to come to Krakow and to witness the presentation of their stories to the Forum. The winners will have the unique opportunity to meet people who can actually make the Single Market work for them. We will cover travel and accommodation costs.
Copyright and use of the stories
By submitting a contribution, competitors declare that it is their original work. The European Commission assumes no responsibility for disputes as regards copyrights. Each competitor declares that their contribution does not infringe any third party right, is suitable for publication and is not restricted by copyright.
All competition entries may be used at a later stage by the European Commission for projects related to the Single Market. Competitors transfer to the European Commission all rights pertaining to the use of the material submitted without limitation.
By submitting an entry and participating in this competition, you: (a) acknowledge that you understand and accept the terms and conditions of the competition; and (b) consent to transfer to the European Commission all copyrights and intellectual property rights of your contribution. The European Commission will have unlimited use at its discretion, without restriction to geographical or other nature, to review, publish, transmit, broadcast, present the winning testimonials for advertising, promotional, educational and other purposes in any medium, such as print (publications, posters, materials for information campaigns, etc.), electronic form (web sites, multimedia presentations, etc.) and / or the use of audiovisual media (radio and TV broadcasts etc.).
If you do not agree with the terms of this competition and the fact that if you win the competition, you will no longer be able to control how your story it is used, then you should not enter the competition and should not submit your story.
Responsibility
The organisers cannot be held responsible for the cancellation, postponement or modification of the competition due to unforeseen circumstances, nor can they be held responsible for any theft, loss, delay or damage during the transmission of the stories. Furthermore, the dates mentioned may be changed due to organisational reasons or unforeseen circumstances.
Acceptance of the rules
The European Commission reserves the right, without prior notice, to modify the terms and conditions of this competition, if it cannot be operated, conducted, or completed as planned, for any reason.
By participating, entrants agree (a) to be bound by these Official Rules, including all eligibility requirements, and (b) to be bound by the decisions of the European Commission, which are final and binding in all matters relating to the competition.
Data protection
Here is an important notice on the protection of personal data.
For further details please go to the section Data Protection.
