Rules and documents

Applications are now closed.

By taking part in this competition, you agree to the following Competition Rules.

Submissions that do not comply with these requirements will not be considered.

This competition is managed by Netcompany-Intrasoft (the Competition Manager) on behalf of and under contract to the European Commission (Secretariat-General, Unit A.1 - Policy Priorities & Work Programme).

What is this competition about?

The competition calls on students in the final two years of secondary education from all EU countries, under the supervision of a teacher, to create and share a short video about a concrete idea they have to improve their communities and to propose action they would like the European Union to take. The video should address a topic falling within one of the areas of competence of the European Union – as is the case with European citizens’ initiatives.

The message in the video should represent the concerns and ideas of students. The overarching message should be clear, and the action proposed should be relevant for all EU countries.

This competition builds on the concept of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), an important tool of participatory democracy in the EU, allowing citizens to take an active part in EU policy-making. The competition can be combined with the use of the Educational toolkit for schools, allowing students to learn more about the EU and how to be active citizens with the European Citizens’ Initiative.

NB. The competition should not be confused with the official process of starting a European citizens’ initiative.

Who can participate?

Videos should be developed and produced by groups of up to seven students in the final two years of secondary education from the same school under the supervision of one or two teachers from the same school.

Eligibility

General

1. Eligible schools include public and private schools or any other officially recognised school providing secondary level education.
2. Participating schools should be based in an EU Member State: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.
3. A school can have multiple groups of students entering the competition, but a student should be part of only one team. The teams should include students from the same school, but they are not required to be from the same class.
4. Only one video per team can be submitted.
5. Entries can only be submitted by the supervising teacher.
6. Participating students should read the Privacy Statement and give their consent to be filmed and take part in the competition by signing the Authorisation Form. The Authorisation Form must also be signed by the parents or legal guardians of the students.

Video content

1. Videos that are not relevant to the topic of the competition or that are shared via a channel other than those indicated for this competition (YouTube or Vimeo) will not be considered. In the application form select from the list the area(s) of EU competence the video refers to.
2. The videos should not feature other people than the students participating in the competition.
3. Applications with unacceptable content will be rejected. Grounds for rejection include but are not limited to: breach of third-party rights, offensive language, lewd or inappropriate images, content that is discriminatory or inflammatory to groups or individuals, content that discloses unnecessary personal information, as well as incomplete submissions. The content should be in line with (i) EU values, as set out in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union and (ii) the rights described in the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.
4. Videos can be produced and submitted in any of the official EU languages and must be accompanied by a transcript translated to English. They can also include subtitles in English, but it is not mandatory.

Video format

1. The videos should be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo. The recommended video formats for uploading are .mov or .mp4 format.
2. The YouTube/Vimeo link to your video must be included in the application form.
3. The video must not exceed 3 minutes.
4. Videos are suggested to be filmed in landscape (horizontal orientation). Videos must be filmed with a quality device (camera or phone), allowing for quality sound.

Copyright

All entries must be an original work, and the participants should either be the sole owner or the transferee of the copyrights. Participants are advised to use copyright-free materials.

Participants should retain the original digital file of their entry, as they may be asked to prove ownership of the work. Competition candidates may be asked to provide supplementary information.

Authorisation Form

The Authorisation Form can be downloaded from the competition page in any of the 24 official EU languages. It must be filled in, signed and submitted (as a scanned or photographed file) as part of the application for each student participating in the competition. Failure to do so will make the application ineligible.

The Authorisation Form must be completed and signed by each student appearing in the video and by their parents or legal guardians. There should be as many authorisation forms attached to the application as students appearing in the video.

Failure to submit all correctly completed authorisation forms will make the entry ineligible.

Submission of Application Form

The supervising teacher should fill in the application form hosted on the ECI Forum. The applicant should sign in to the European Commission's user authentication service known as 'EU Login', on the European Citizens' Initiative Forum website. The Application Form is available in 24 official EU languages.

Applications can be submitted until 13 December 2023 (24:00 CET). Submissions after this deadline will not be considered.

All sections of the Application Form must be filled in for the entry to be eligible.

The application includes the following elements:

• Supervising teacher’s (applicant) information: name, email, phone, school name and country.
• Students’ information: first and last name, authorisation forms for each of the  participating students (up to seven), duly completed and signed.
• Video information: the URL link as uploaded in YouTube or Vimeo, the title of the video, a short description (max 500 characters), the spoken language of the video (out of the 24 official EU languages), and a transcript  translated to English.
• The selected EU competence(s) the concept of the video falls within.

Failure to fill out the application form will make the entry ineligible.

Evaluation of submissions

The Competition Manager, working under contract with the European Commission, will assess the eligibility of the submissions. The Manager will then check the video and upload the eligible ones and make them available for public voting. When the voting period is completed, a jury composed of EU officials and representatives of civil society organisations will assess the most voted videos in terms of relevance, clarity, originality, and creativity to determine the three winning teams.

The following criteria will be considered for the evaluation of the videos:

• ECI-relevance (0-25 points): Is the idea of the video relevant as a topic for a European citizens’ initiative?

• Clarity (0-50 points): Is the message clear and concise?

• Creativity (0-25 points): Is the idea original? Does the team approach the idea in an interesting way? Do they use elements or attributes that catch the eye of the viewer?

To be eligible for the prize the applicants need to reach at least 60 points in total. The winning team(s) will be notified via the teacher’s contact details in their application form by 20 February 2024. The winners will be announced on the ECI webpage and other official European Commission channels.

The competition organisers reserve the right to contact participating schools during the evaluation process to clarify any details related to the application.

Prize: Study trip to Brussels

The three winning teams – each composed of up to seven students and up to two teachers - will win a study trip to Brussels, planned for 21-23 March 2024. During the trip, students will have the opportunity to meet representatives of the European Institutions to learn more about how EU policies and laws are made and how they can get involved with the ECI.

The prize covers the travel expenses of the team between the location of the school in the EU country and Brussels, the reimbursement of the accommodation costs for two nights and a daily allowance to cover other costs (approximately 113 EUR per day per person), according to the European Commission’s rules for covering travel expenses.

The winning teams comprising up to seven pupils and up to two teachers will have to pay for their accommodation expenses and will receive their reimbursement within 30 days after the trip. For that purpose, each participant or institution that covered the costs will need to send the completed bank account information form, their tickets and their boarding passes and complete the feedback report form. The winning teams will be contacted for the travel arrangements.

All the winning teams will be invited to follow an organised programme during their visit.

The videos of the winning teams will be promoted on the European Commission’s official channels with subtitles in English. The visual identity of the ECI will be added when publishing the winning videos.

Disclaimer

Under no circumstances can the organisers be held liable for any accidents, costs, direct or indirect damage that might occur as a result of participation in this competition. The organisers can under no circumstances be held liable for the cancellation, postponement, or modification of the competition due to unforeseen circumstances. The dates mentioned may change for organisational reasons or unforeseen circumstances.

The organisers will under no circumstances be liable for any delays, changes, disruptions, cancellations, diversions or substitutions, unavailability of the prize(s) due to local public holidays or other conditions affecting availability of the prize(s). The contractor shall not be liable in respect of any non-performance of their obligations by reason of any pandemic, natural disaster, governmental order or regulation, or any other cause beyond their control.

The organisers reserve the right at any time, without any liability, to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, this competition with or without prior notice to participants.

Thank you in advance for participating and good luck!

General information on the ImagineEU video competition

 Recording: Basic technical requirements  

• 720p, 1080p or 4K is preferred | 25fps, 30fps or 60fps 
• Landscape (turn your phone sideways) (recommended) 
• up to 3 minutes length  
• .mp4 or .mov 

Recording: Technical tips  

• Lighting: Natural light from a window is ideal. Facing your light source is always better than having it at your back, which creates shadows.  
• Sound: Avoid very noisy or windy environments. If possible, use a Bluetooth/external microphone connected to the phone or the camera.  
• Background: Choose a simple background with no distractions. Keep a distance from it to blur it as much as possible.  
• Get help: Let someone else hold your smartphone so that you can use its main lens and avoid the selfie lens. 

Recommended camera  

• Mirrorless or DSLR camera 
• Phone camera recommended: iPhone 11 or above, high end Samsung Galaxy, or similar.  
• Extra equipment: A tripod, selfie stick, gimbal or microphone can enhance your takes and stabilisation, but are not necessary.  
• Video editing: Microsoft Windows offers Windows Movie Maker and macOS offers iMovie, GoPro offers QuickApp which will get the basics done, Adobe offers Premiere, Apple offers Final Cut & Blackmagic offers DaVinci for more professional use.  

In case that you wish to add subtitles in English, you can use software Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro. 

Music  

If you use music, we advise you to use copyright-free music. If in doubt, check the Creative Commons to  make sure you stay on the right side of the law. 

Licence agreement  

To ensure we can publish your video on our social media channels and websites, you declare that you have cleared all copyright, including music rights.  

Data privacy  

Anyone appearing in the video declares that they have been informed of the purposes of the video, where it will be published, and of their data privacy rights as set out in the Privacy Statement, by signing the Authorisation Form.  

Additional information 

Include a title and credits in the film itself for any information, images, audio, or video clips that are not your own. All information presented in the video must be properly cited, giving credit to the original source.  

Use original, copyright-free, or public domain images, footage, and music. 

It is not allowed to submit videos that serve in any way as an advertisement for a product, political party or company.  

Language  

Videos can be created in any EU language and submitted with or without subtitles.  

They must be accompanied by a transcript translated to English, as requested in the Application Form.

Video competition main page 

Educational toolkit 

eci_team@eutaketheinitiative.eu