20 prize-winning 20-year olds in a creative competition on the 20th anniversary of the European single market

Brussels, 18-10-2012 — /europawire.eu/ — 20 young people, all 20 years of age, will today be awarded prizes they have won in the ‘Generation 1992’ creative competition, in which young people from all over Europe born in 1992 (the year in which the European single market was launched) were asked to show what this vast open market meant to them.

From 11 April until 9 September, those born in 1992 had an opportunity to express their views on the way the single market operates — doing so through photographs, video clips, articles, cartoons or indeed smartphone apps, and on any one of four themes. In the end, 380 young people from all 27 EU countries participated in the competition.

The 20 winning submissions (4 prize-winners in each of the five categories) will be presented on the occasion of the opening of Single Market Week today in Brussels at the offices of the European Parliament. Commissioner Michel Barnier and Toine Manders MEP will personally present the awards at a prize-giving ceremony; for all 20 winners, their prize includes a traineeship in the European institutions.

The four categories of the competition were:

• Education and citizenship (comprising 43 % of the projects submitted)
• Jobs and entrepreneurship (17 %)
• Culture and leisure (27 %)
• Consumers and the environment (13 %).

The five formats were:

• Video clip:
• Smartphone app for Android, Apple, etc.
• Article
• Photograph
• Cartoon/comic strip

Background

It is the 20th anniversary of the European single market, which has transformed the way Europeans live, work, travel, study and trade with each other. It has provided enterprises with new opportunities to develop and to succeed in world markets.

Single Market Week, celebrating this 20th anniversary, will run from 15 to 20 October 2012 and feature events organised in cities across all 27 Member States of the European Union. These events will bring together European enterprises and citizens, as well as Members of the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Council and the Member States, to celebrate and to consider the past, present and future of the Single Market. The opening event in Brussels today will be addressed by the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, the head of the Italian government, Mario Monti, and the European Commissioner responsible for the internal market and services, Michel Barnier.

For more information

About the competition:

http://generation1992.eu

About the winners:

http://generation1992.eu/sites/default/files/G92_Winners.pdf

Live webstreaming of the opening event:

http://webcast.ec.europa.eu/eutv/portal/_v_fl_300_en/player/index_player.html?id=17165

The website for Single Market Week:

http://www.singlemarket20.eu/

Contacts : Stefaan De Rynck (+32 2 296 34 21) Carmel Dunne (+32 2 299 88 94) Audrey Augier (+32 2 297 16 07)