#EUSolidarityCorps Short Story Contest - Terms & Conditions

Take part in the European Solidarity Corps Short Story Contest and have a chance to win a European Solidarity Corps promotion kit and many other prizes. After six rounds of photo contests, we are now interested in your story. Please share with us:

 

How the European Solidarity Corps has changed my life and me?

 

Show us what you have explored and experienced during your European Solidarity Corps activity and you could be one of the lucky winners!

 

How does it work?

The contest will run on a monthly basis. The fourth round is open from 18th June to 31st July 2019 midnight.

To take part in the contest, just follow these six easy steps:

       1. Go to https://europa.eu/youth/solidarity_en 

       2. Login with your European Solidarity Corps credentials and click on Story contest button

       3. Choose the language, in which you will write your story. You are allowed to submit your short story in the 24 languages of the European Union (Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish).

       4. Describe your experience and transformation with the European Solidarity Corps in 10,000 characters in the appropriate box and do not forget to add the place, the country and the time of your European Solidarity Corps activity

       5. By submitting your short story you give the consent to the European Commission to publish the story

       6. Please note that we are looking for stories reflecting the ideals, values and the true spirit of the European Solidarity Corps (check the European Solidarity Corps mission and principles below). Attention, your European Solidarity Corps experience should have taken place after the start of the Corps as of 7th December 2016

Your story will be displayed in the public gallery immediately following your submission. The European Solidarity Corps team reserves the right to moderate the contributions and remove any submission considered inappropriate without prior and further notice.

If your story meets the above-mentioned criteria, you could become one of the #EUSolidarityCorps contest monthly winners!

 

How will the winners be selected?

The contest is open to anybody aged 18 to 30, registered on the European Solidarity Corps Portal and who had a European Solidarity Corps experience after 7th December 2019.

A professional jury including editors and social media experts will select up to five winning stories. The winning stories will then be published in August/September for public voting. The public vote will determine the ranking of the stories and the winner of the best story of the month.

The European Solidarity Corps team, which is managing the prizes for this contest on behalf of the European Commission, will contact the monthly winner by email. Participants should keep an eye on their incoming emails and make sure they reply within seven working days to the emails sent by the team. With no reply from them, another participant will be chosen as a winner. The name of the winner(s) of each round will be announced in the month following the respective round on some or all of the following social media platforms:Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

What are the prizes?

Up to five monthly winners will receive a European Solidarity Corps promotion kit and a voucher of a value of 100 €. In addition, the best story of the month will be selected by on line voting out of the five winners. The person, who submits the best story, will receive an Interrail ticket to travel to seven destinations in Europe for the maximum of one month or a voucher of the same value.

Just for you to know …

Be original. You must be the sole author and owner of the story submitted.

The protection of personal data is important for the European Union and its institutions. Therefore:

• Don’t mention private people without their consent.
  In the case of children ask their parents for permission.
• Be aware that the winners are requested to submit the written consent for publishing their story on the website(s), Instagram, Twitter, Facebook of the European Commission and its multiplier organisations like national agencies, Eurodesk, SALTO etc. in the context of the European Solidarity Corps

    - Adult authorisation:  adult_authorisation.doc

   

   - Minor authorisation: minor_authorisation.doc

 

    - Photo licence:  photo_licence.doc

• Keep in mind, that

        a) you should keep these consent forms/letters in a safe place for the period of the contest up to 6 months or until you receive a prior personal message from the organising body, stating that you are freed of this obligation, which actually only aims at protecting YOU from claims on behalf of one of your photo subjects.

 

Check out the mission and principles of the European Solidarity Corps:

• Mission:

           - Bringing together young people to build a more inclusive society;

           - Supporting vulnerable people;

           - Responding to societal challenges.

• Principles:

         - Embracing the values of solidarity, respect for human dignity and human rights, and believing in the promotion of a fair and equal society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality prevail;

         - Striving to enhance solidarity between people across the European Union and beyond, while respecting their cultures and their traditions, and aiming to build a community of shared responsibilities and mutual support;

         - Willing to make meaningful contributions to society and showing solidarity, cooperation and mutual understanding;

 

There is a limit of one story per month you can submit. Please be aware that you can only win maximum one prize per month in the #EUSolidarityCorps contest.

You can request through the European Solidarity Corps portal to have your story removed by the European Solidarity Corps team.

We have the right, at any time, to disqualify and retrieve from the European Solidarity Corps Portal any short story if we have reasons to believe that you have not followed the rules of the contest.

By participating in the #EUSolidarityCorps contest, the winning story participant(s) give consent to the European Commission, to use the story for their own publicity purposes and communication on local, regional, national and European level for the existence of the European Solidarity Corps programme and its successor programmes to come.

This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter. Entrants discharge Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter from any kind of responsibility in relation to this contest.

The organiser reserves the right to change or replace the contest prizes and/or modify the rules and regulations of the contest as and when necessary, without prior notice.

By submitting a story for the contest, the participant will be regarded as having accepted and agreed to be bound by the rules and regulations of the contest.