Postcrossing Blog

Do you know a young artist who loves postcards or maybe you are one yourself…?

PostEurop (the association of European postal services) is celebrating 70 years of EUROPA stamps in 2026, and to mark the occasion they’re organizing a postcard design competition for young creatives — with winning designs printed by postal services and a cash prize for the artists! 🥳

EUROPA stamps have been around since 1956, when six countries started issuing them to highlight peace, unity and cooperation in Europe. Today there are over 50 postal organizations involved, and for this special anniversary PostEurop is inviting the next generation to show what “Unity in Europe” looks like to them, in the form of a postcard illustration or design.

The competition is open to young people and design students aged 18–25 who live in countries or territories that issue EUROPA stamps. Participants are asked to create a postcard-sized design (148×105 mm) on the theme of “Unity in Europe” and submit it according to the technical specs.

During the summer, a jury of international designers will select three to five winners. Each winning design will receive a €500 prize, be professionally printed as postcard sets on premium paper, and be showcased on the EUROPA stamps website. Winners will also receive copies of their cards, and PostEurop members will be able to use the winning designs on postcards during 2026–2027.

The call for entries is already open, and the deadline for submissions is 14 April 2026. You can find all the details, technical requirements and submission form on PostEurop’s website.

We thought some creative postcrossers might enjoy taking part in something that combines art, postcards and the union spirit, all in one go. Wouldn’t it be awesome if your design matches the design of 2026's Europa stamps, which will be a common one in all countries? Then we could make some super cool maxicards! 😍

You might have heard the name PostEurop before, most likely because they organise the yearly EUROPA stamps competition. What you perhaps don’t know is that their functions go well beyond this task: through their several forums and groups, PostEurop oversees the cooperation between 52 public postal services in the European continent, in a variety of topics such as social responsibility, best practices or quality of service.

Last week, PostEurop celebrated its 20th anniversary with a Plenary Assembly and several other events. Since Postcrossing is very active in Europe, PostEurop invited the attending delegations to take part in an exhibition about Postcrossing – by sharing what the project was like in their country.

Sixteen countries accepted the challenge and made a stand with general information and statistics, and shared some postcards sent and received. Other PostEurop countries that didn’t know about Postcrossing yet, had the opportunity to learn about the project. Here are some photos from the event:

Belgian postcrossers were also invited to come around and check out the stands, and despite the inconvenient schedule in the middle of the week, some did come! There was even a tiny post office where cards and stamps could be purchased and stamped with a special anniversary cancellation stamp.

Oh, by the way, the winners of this year’s EUROPA stamps competition were announced during the plenary: Finland and Turkey took home the big honours!