Competition rules

How to enter

1. Take or create an original photo (long side >2000px) supported by a short text and following the guidelines in the Competition rules.
2. Submit your entry through the online submission form.

Submission period: 15 March – 15 August 2017 at 23:59 (CEST)

Entry is free of charge. Submission of an entry will be taken to mean acceptance of the Competition rules and the Terms and Conditions.

General rules

The competition is open to citizens of the 33 EEA member countries and 6 West Balkan cooperating countries. All participants must be 18 or older. The photos must be taken in the countries mentioned above.

One entrant may submit maximum five entries (an entry consists of one picture) in total in the competition. As each entry will be handled separately, you need to fill out the online submission form for each entry if you choose to submit more than one entry.

You must have full copyrights to the submitted material. Competition submissions must not include any endorsements of products or services, or any obscene, violent, racist or defamatory content. Incomplete entries or entries that do not comply with the formal specifications will be automatically disqualified.

Submissions may also not be accepted into the contest if the image in the entry features an identifiable individual who has not given their consent to appear or if the image features advertising or trademarks which would otherwise require the EEA to obtain permission to use.

Technical requirements

Submissions must contain one photograph and accompanying text.

• Photo: In jpeg-format, minimum resolution of 2000 pixels for the long side of the photograph.
• Text: Short title and a text of maximum 1000 characters in English

Judging criteria

The judges will look for a creative, engaging and inspiring submission. Your entry will be judged on:

• Relevance of your entry to the competition topic
• Creativity expressed
• Technical ability
• Persuasiveness of the entry

The organisers and judges reserve the right to remove any entries from the competition that they feel may breach any of the Competition rules, the Terms and Conditions or may bring the competition into disrepute. Such entries will be disqualified.

Prizes and notification of winners

The winners in each category (NATUREprovides, NATUREprotects and NATUREinspires) will be awarded a cash prize of EUR 1000, while EUR 500 is on offer for both the Public Choice Award and the Youth Prize.

The Youth Prize will be awarded to the winning entry, selected among those submitted by persons aged between 18 and 24 (born between calendar years 1993-1999) to any of the competition categories.

All finalists will be put forward for the Public Choice Award and may also feature in future digital and print material from the EEA and its European partners.

The winners will be notified by email therefore please make sure that you provide correct contact information in the submission form. The official announcement of the winners will follow at the end of October 2017.

Copyrights

The copyright of the materials submitted for this competition remains with respective participants. However, each entrant grants the EEA and its partners the right to use the submitted materials in its environmental communication crediting the copyright owners.

Confidentiality and protection of personal data

For the processing of this competition, the EEA observes the rules set in Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (OJEU L 8 of 12.1.2001, p. 1).

No personal data is shared with third parties for direct marketing. For further detailed information please refer to the competition Specific Privacy Statement or regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data.