Rules for the "Environment & Me" photography competition

How to enter

1. Take or create an original photo (long side >2000px) supported by short text and following the guidelines in the Competition rules.
2. Upload the file to an online sharing site, such as Flickr, Shutterfly, Snapfish or Photobucket.
3. Fill in the online submission form, providing a link to your image.

Submission period: 1 May - 30 September 2014 at 12:00 (CET).

Entry is free. You must have full copyrights to the submitted material. 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.

One entrant may submit maximum five entries in total in the competition. As each entry will be handled separately, you are required to fill out the online submission form for each entry.

You must have full copyrights to the submitted material. All 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.

Photo category requirements

Photo category 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 when translated into English

Judging Criteria

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

• Relevance of your story to the competition topic
• Creativity expressed
• Artistic ability
• Persuasiveness of the story

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 will be awarded cash prizes of EUR 2000 for the 1st prize, EUR 1500 for the 2nd prize, EUR 1000 for the 3rd prize and EUR 500 for public choice award and youth prize.

The Youth Prize will be awarded to the winning entry, selected among those submitted by persons aged between 18 and 24 (born in calendar years 1990-1996).

All the finalists will be put forward for the People's 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 it is crucial to provide correct contact information.

Copyrights

Copyright of the materials submitted for this contest remains with the respective entrants. 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 contest, EEA observe 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 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.