Generation 1992: winners announced!

UEAPME was a partner of "Generation1992", a competition for 20-year olds running from April to September 2012 organised by the European Commission’s DG Internal Market as part of the events surrounding the 20th anniversary of the Single Market and in particular the Single Market Week. Besides creating awareness on the European single market among young Europeans, the aim of the competition was to encourage reflection and discussion on the role of the single market in young people’s daily lives.

Word spread rapidly through youth networks and social media, helping to reap creative prose, artistic audio-visuals, photos, drawings and paintings as well as inventive apps from all corners of Europe. Most youngsters (43%) were taken by the advantages the Single Market brings to their education; Erasmus exchanges are seen as crowning their university years and enhancing their European identities. For some, belonging to the ’Generation 1992’ also implies responsibility: Laurene Veale (UK), wrote: "For us the Single Market is not just about debts and disputes, it is also new possibilities and progress because we have grown up with and within the EU, our hopes and efforts should contribute to its advancement and future. Not just through our votes, but through our projects, initiatives, enterprises, travels, and during our studies and careers, we can shape the Union".

Culture and leisure came second with 27% of entries; Kristine Pace (Malta) said her cartoon was inspired by her belief that : "The exchanging of ideas and the sharing of cultural property (e.g. books, paintings, films, music,) brings about a better understanding of another country’s culture, and helps communities to grow and improve, by sharing and contributing to each other…."

17% of entrants linked the Single Market with opportunities for jobs and entrepreneurship; Christina Kyprianou (Cyprus) sees her successful business and the Single Market as one: "Entrepreneurship and its world (…) made me feel like I belong everywhere, that I can work everywhere, and that I can go everywhere, if that is what I chose to do; and I can do this so easily and effortlessly without obstacles and without barriers, just like the European Single Market".

So, without further delay, the five winners are: Maria Gil Soriano (Spain), with the video My Generation, in the Education and Citizenship category; Evangelos Pappas (Greece), with the Smartphone App European Union Quiz; Berina Mulovic (France), with the entry 27 countries, 23 languages, hundreds of projects... in the article category; Sarah Freistedt from Germany in the photograph category, with Movement without Borders; and Atanas Filipov (Bulgaria) in the cartoon category, with Keep It Together. You can check out the full list of finalists here.

The winners were present at the Awards Ceremony during the Single Market Week Launch event jointly organised by the European Commission and the European Parliament on 15 October in Brussels, and Commissioner Barnier and member of the European Parliament Toine Manders personally awarded them their prizes, which for all 20 finalists include internships in the European Institutions.