To access the competition and upload your pictures you will have to create a Flickr account. A group called 'Photo-competition -Europe, our future!' has been created.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/photocompetitionyoureuropeyourfuture/

Please note that to take part in the competition, you also have to accept the group rules and the terms of service as indicated at the bottom of http://www.flickr.com/mail/

Theme

A united Europe, our shared future

Participants will be encouraged to consider aspects of solidarity within the European Union.

Solidarity has always been at the heart of the European project. The financial and economic crisis has shaken our bedrock values and risks upsetting the delicate social harmony that allows us all to live together. A return to values of solidarity is essential to safeguard the European social model.

Solidarity can be viewed in different ways:

• between countries in the European Union
• between the old and the young
• between people from different backgrounds
• between men and women
• between countries in the EU and the developing world.

Young people must be the driving force behind this re-found solidarity.

Prizes and perks

For the photographers who submitted the 30 shortlisted photos:

• shortlisted photograph will be showcased in the shortlisted & winners exhibition
• international exposure on the Europe Solidarity website
• potentially global media coverage.

For the 3 winners:

• their winning photograph will be showcased in the shortlisted & winners exhibition
• an InterRail pass for 1 month to travel around Europe in July and August 2012
• a selection of the best photos from their travels around Europe will be included in the digital winners’ book
• international exposure on the Europe Solidarity website
• potentially global media coverage
• return flight to Belgium and hotel accommodation for 2 consecutive nights, to attend the Europe Solidarity awards ceremony in November 2012.

Judging

Selection process

Step 1 – In an initial pre-selection round, a shortlist of 100 photos will be drawn up by the Europe Solidarity Pre selection Committee.
Step 2 – From the 100, an international jury will select a shortlist of 30 (shortlist of 30 to be announced June 2012).
Step 3 – From these 30 photographs, 3 will be selected as the final winners (winners to be announced June 2012).
Step 4 – The 3 winning contestants will be invited to submit 50-100 of their own photographs, shot during their InterRail travels around Europe in July-August 2012, for inclusion in the digital winners’ book (September 2012).

Selection criteria

Submission of the photos will be judged according to the following criteria
• Relevance to the topic
• Creativity and originality of expression
• Composition
• Overall photographic quality.

Competition rules

Note: before registering, please take time to read these rules.

1. By entering the Competition You hereby accept these Competition Rules.
1.1. The Competition is free of charge for participants to enter.
1.2. The Competition is open to all European resident physical persons between 16 and 25 years of age. Staff members of the European Union institutions, agencies and bodies are excluded.
1.3. Participation is individual and limited to one physical person per each set of images. Associations, groups and similar joint participations are excluded.
1.4. Entries must be submitted by 11:59:59pm (GMT) on May 3rd, 2012.
1.5. By entering the Competition, You agree and acknowledge that Europe Solidarity is permitted to receive Your registration data. All personal information supplied to Europe Solidarity will be kept secure and confidential and will be used only for those purposes made known to users at the time the information is collected.

2. To enter, You must upload Your image via the following website http://www.flickr.com/groups/photocompetitionyoureuropeyourfuture/ (the "Website"), following the on-screen instructions carefully.
2.1. Photos uploaded via the Website must be of maximum 2 MP or 800 pixels on the longest side in any common photo formats.
2.2. Images must reflect the theme outlined, information on which can be found on the Website.

3. Entries will be judged between May 4th 2012 and June 15th 2012.
3.1. Each entrant can submit up to three images for free. Judging will be based on the single image and not the series of images.
3.2. A shortlist of 30 photographers will be voted for by the Jury and Europe Solidarity and announced in June 2012. They will be notified by email.
3.3. Within the 30 shortlisted photographers, the three winners of the Europe Solidarity Award will be voted for by the Jury. They will be notified by email.
3.4. At the beginning of September, the three winners of the Europe Solidarity Award will be requested to submit a series of not less than 50 and not more than 100 photos portraying the theme of the competition -a united Europe, our shared future- shot in July and August 2012. A selection of the best photos will be included in the digital winners’ book.
3.5. The three winners will receive return flights to Belgium (economy class) and hotel accommodation for two consecutive nights, including the night of the award and digital winners’ book presentation in Brussels in November 2012. The exact date of the Award presentation will be notified by email.
3.6. The decision of the Jury and Europe Solidarity is final and no negotiation will be entered into with respect to any such decision.

4. Shortlisted photographers and winners will be announced online.

5. Europe Solidarity reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any entry that does not comply with the following requirements, even after the entry is submitted on the Website.
5.1. You warrant and represent, in respect of each entry submitted by You (“Entry”), as follows:
a) You are the sole owner and author of each Entry
b) You have the right to make Your entry available to the Competition
c) Each Entry does not contain personally identifiable information about You or any other person(s)
d) Each Entry does not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libellous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic or profane content
e) Each Entry does not contain any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law
f) Each Entry does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violate any person’s rights of privacy or publicity, and Your Entry does not include:
i) trademarks owned by third parties
ii) copyrighted materials owned by third parties (including movie dialogue or musical compositions)
iii) names, likenesses, voices or other characteristics identifying celebrities or other public figures, living or dead
g) Entries which contain any commercial content that promotes any product or service other than that of Europe Solidarity.
5.2. You agree to fully indemnify Europe Solidarity in respect of all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person by reason of Your breaching of any of the foregoing.
5.3. You confirm that each person depicted in the Entry has granted permission to be portrayed as shown. Any costumes, props or other materials used must be rented or borrowed with the permission of the owner, and all other relevant permissions must have been obtained.

6. If, according to your national law, you are a minor of age or put under a legal guardian’s assistance and representation, You have Your parent’s or legal guardian’s consent to participate in the Competition.
6.1. If Europe Solidarity does not receive a valid signed parental or legal guardian consent form for any shortlisted photographer or winner minor of age or put under legal guardian’s assistance and representation, within 7 clear days of the contestant being declared a shortlisted photographer or winner (excluding the day on which such declaration is made by Europe Solidarity) Europe Solidarity will be entitled to select an alternative shortlisted photographer or winner among the contestants.

7. Europe Solidarity recognizes You, the author of the image, retain full ownership of the copyright in each Entry.
7.1. All entrants understand that any image submitted to the competition may be used by Europe Solidarity, for promotional purposes of the event only, for a maximum of three years after the awards ceremony in November 2012. You hereby grant Europe Solidarity a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence in each Entry throughout the world for three years in all media for any use connected to the promotion of Europe Solidarity’s activities and competition, including, but not limited to:
a) judging the Competition
b) displaying the winning entries and runners up at public exhibitions promoting Europe Solidarity and organised by Europe Solidarity
c) inclusion within the Website, a Photography Awards book, magazine or similar
d) inclusion within any materials promoting the Competition and / or any exhibition organised by Europe Solidarity, in the promotion of Europe Solidarity
e) inclusion on Competition- and exhibition-related products to be sold by Europe Solidarity or any third party following individual agreement by the author
f) sub-licencing the Entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the Competition and any related exhibition
g) allowing Website viewers to view images on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form on disk or on a PDA or mobile telephone (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) for their personal, non-commercial use only. Please also refer to clause 9.

8. Any photograph used by Europe Solidarity shall carry a credit line. Any failure to provide such credit line shall not be deemed to be a breach, as long as Europe Solidarity uses its reasonable endeavours to rectify such failure within a reasonable period from the date of notice of such failure.
8.1. You acknowledge that it is Your responsibility to protect any Entry against image misuse by any third party, for example, but not limited to the insertion of a watermark. Europe Solidarity assumes no responsibility and is not liable for any image misuse.
8.2. Europe Solidarity assumes no responsibility for any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, whether caused by website users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilised in the Competition, and Europe Solidarity assumes no responsibility for technical, hardware or software failure of any kind, for lost network connections, garbled computer transmissions, other problems or technical malfunctions with regard to the Competition. Europe Solidarity assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, corruption, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alteration of Entries. Europe Solidarity is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail addressed to Europe Solidarity on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the internet or any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Your or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the Competition. If for any reason a contestant’s entry cannot be viewed or is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or technical failures, Europe Solidarity assumes no responsibility.

9. In no event will Europe Solidarity be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages arising out of any contestant’s access to and use of the Website. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, everything on the Website is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose or use or non-infringement.

10. You agree to participate in related publicity and to the use of Your name and likeness for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity without additional compensation.

11. All entrants must be able to supply a high resolution image (at least 6 MB / 2480x3508 pixel or up to 7016x9933 pixel / 59,4x84,1 cm in 300dpi – please do not extrapolate!) suitable for printing in media and for an exhibition should the image be required. If Europe Solidarity does not receive a high resolution image for any shortlisted photographer or winner within 7 clear days of the contestant being declared a shortlisted photographer or winner (excluding the day on which such declaration is made by Europe Solidarity) Europe Solidarity will be entitled to select an alternative shortlisted photographer or winner among the contestants.

12. There are no cash alternatives or alternative equivalent prizes available for prize winners or shortlisted photographers.