In this 23rd consecutive year, 53 entries were submitted based on the theme "Musical instruments" to promote the musical and cultural aspects of every country’s traditional instrument.

The results of this year’s online EUROPA Stamp competition were disclosed during the PostEurop Plenary Assembly in San Marino last week, in which PE Post of Serbia (Serbia), Turkish PTT (Turkey) and Hellenic Post (Greece) emerged as the top three winners respectively. 

"What beautiful stamps we have at PostEurop! The theme of 2014 with musical instruments allowed the postal operators to create marvellous stamps with several different interpretations of the theme using many different printing techniques and special effects including engravings, varnishing, embossing and extra colours" exclaimed Anita Häggblom, Chair of the PostEurop Stamps and Philately working group from Posten Ǻland.  "The public votes received almost equalled to those of last year's competition but what was remarkable to note was how close the votes were between each entry." she added.

The first place winner Serbian stamp portrays the traditional Serbian bagpipe.  A man dressed in the national folk costume is shown playing the bagpipe surrounded by the authentic landscape of Eastern Serbia in the background.

EUROPA Jury Competition

In addition to the public competition, PostEurop also held its fifth consecutive EUROPA Jury Competition at PostEurop’s Headquarters earlier this year. The jury composed of nine philatelic experts scrutinized all the displayed entries based on the theme “musical instruments”. The jurors casted their closed ballots and  two rounds of voting were necessary for the group of experts co-chaired by Dr. Botond Szebeny and Dr. Guy Coutant to proudly announce bpost from Belgium as the winner of the 2014 EUROPA stamp Jury Prize. 

The bpost winning stamp, with its illustration of a saxophone, celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Adolphe Sax its inventor and the invention of the saxophone in Belgium.

This year’s Jury was composed of:
• Dr Botond Szebeny, Secretary General PostEurop  (Co-Chair)
• Dr Guy Coutant, Philatelist (Co-Chair)
• Mr Arie Piet, Former CEO Joh Enschedé Stamp Printing, Director Stamp Printing National Bank Belgium
• Mrs Andrée Trommer, Secretary General FIP (Fédération Internationale de Philatélie)
• Mr Marc Taraskofft, Stamp designer
• Mr Olaf Neumann, Stamp designer
• Klein und Neumann
• Mr Stefan Klein, Stamp designer
• Mr Jürgen Haepers, europa-stamps.blogspot.com

The awards were delivered to the postal philatelic community on Saturday, 20 September 2014, at the distinguished Brussels Town Hall, during the ceremony of the Belgian Philatelic Grand Prix.

“I am proud to serve once again as a jury member.  Looking beyond the illustrations told a unique story about the musical culture or history of their land.  The judges enjoyed deliberating on the beautiful designs of each entry and again the decision was a difficult one.” commented Botond Szebeny, PostEurop Secretary General.

The second and third place if the EUROPA Jury competition went to Itella (Finland) and Poste San Marino (San Marino) respectively.

Looking forward, postal operators are already preparing for the theme of next year’s competition:  “Old Toys”.

Congratulations to all the winners.