The awards were delivered to the postal philatelic community on Saturday, 19 September 2015, at the distinguished Brussels Town Hall, during the ceremony of the Belgian Philatelic Grand Prix. In this year’s edition, 56 entries were submitted based on the theme "Old Toys – a trip down memory lane".

The jury composed of eight philatelic experts scrutinized all the displayed entries based on the theme “Old Toys”. 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 the Russian Post as the winner of the 2015 EUROPA stamp Jury Prize. 

This year’s Jury was composed of the following group of experts:

1. Dr Botond Szebeny, Secretary General PostEurop  (Co-Chair)
2. Dr Guy Coutant, Philatelist (Co-Chair)
3. Mr Arie Piet, Former CEO Joh Enschedé Stamp Printing, Director Stamp Printing National Bank Belgium
4. Mrs Andrée Trommer, Secretary General FIP (Fédération Internationale de Philatélie)
5. Mr Eric Contesse, Philatelist
6. Mr Olaf Neumann, Stamp designer
7. Mr Stefan Klein, Stamp designer
8. Mr Jürgen Haepers, europa-stamps.blogspot.com

“This year, the chosen theme was "Old Toys". The collection presented is tinged with nostalgia: all these vintage toys bring back memories from our youth. Some countries display regional toys, which added an extra value to the stamp. In any case, those stamps will be appreciated both by the youth of today who are reminded of what their parents had as toys, as well as by the elder who will recall long forgotten memories” reflects Guy Coutant.

“A very well organized jury vote and good presentation of the stamps. Very professionally done!" exclaimed Andrée Trommer

“This year the choice was really difficult because of the high standard in creativity and quality of realisation. The emotional aspect was my most important argument for the finalists of this wonderful theme!" stated Olaf Neumann

“It was a great pleasure to take part of this jury in this year edition. All the stamps presented creative motifs with good design and it wasn’t easy for me to vote for only one best stamp“, echoed Stefan Klein

“Very close competition!” summed Arie Piet.

“This initiative has proven its worth and we appreciate the time and effort each jury member has taken to participate in the judging process.  Beyond that it has also allowed us to regularly bring together a group of known experts to further engage in EUROPA stamps” commented Botond Szebeny, PostEurop Secretary General.

The second and third place of the EUROPA Jury competition went to PostNord (Sweden) and Latvijas Pastas (Latvia) respectively.

Congratulations to all the winners.

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