PostEurop held its fourth EUROPA Jury Competition at PostEurop’s Headquarters.  Eight philately experts were invited to join the 2013 jury and judge the fifty-six EUROPA Stamps based on their expert opinion. Three rounds of voting and much deliberation were necessary for the group of experts chaired by Dr. Guy Coutant to proudly announce Itella Posti from Finland as the winner of the 2013 EUROPA stamp Jury Prize.

The Jury this year composed of:

·         Dr. Guy Coutant, Philatelist expert (Jury President)

·         Vita Franckova, Philatelist expert, Czech Republic

·         Jurgen Haepers, Philatelist expert,  www.europa-stamps.blogspot.com, Switzerland

·         Stefan Klein, Designer, Germany

·         Olaf Neumann, Designer, Germany

·         Pierre Leempoel, Manager, bpost Stamp Printing, Belgium

·         Arie Piet, Former CEO Joh Enschedé Stamp Printing, Netherlands

·         Marc Taraskoff, Designer, France

·         Botond Szebeny, PostEurop, Belgium

The election, though conducted in a serious manner, took place in a relaxed atmosphere. Jurgen Haepers said that “the collaboration between the jury members was great and very friendly. I had nice, enjoyable and interesting conversation with all of them.”

Nevertheless, it was not that easy to select the three most beautiful EUROPA stamps that would make it to the final. "Three rounds were necessary, as the average quality of the presented stamps was very high” said Dr. Coutant who chaired the process. “It was so competitive that in the second round, up to seven countries were selected to participate in the final round!" added Dr. Coutant.

Dr. Coutant then explained further that the jury paid attention to three points: the originality of the design, the "technical" aspects – the quality of the graphics –, and the necessity of the stamp to "please" the average stamp user and the average philatelist. The Finnish stamp obtained a high score in all these three key factors.

"During the final voting phase, Finland became a clear winner with nine points more than the Netherlands” summed Jurgen Haepers.

The awards will be delivered to the postal philatelic community on Saturday 21 September, at 4pm, in the distinguished Brussels Town Hall, during the ceremony of the Grands Prix for the Belgian and European Philatelic Art.

Congratulations to Itella Posti Oy!