Last month to join the “Born in ‘89” essay competition

You were born in 1989 and you are a citizen of a country in central and eastern Europe. You have the chance to express your feelings about the 1989 events and to win some prestigious prizes. Join the contest!

The EBRD, the Financial Times and UniCredit Group have launched in October an essay competition “Born in ‘89” to commemorate the historic events of autumn 1989. The fall of the Iron Curtain liberated the people and countries of central and eastern Europe and ended the division of the continent. A new generation of young people born in 1989 grew up in a time of rapid change and massive upheaval.

With the competition the organizers aim to discover how the young generation in the CEE region has witnessed and coped with the changes over the last 20 years. We want them to express their hopes, expectations and also their concerns for the future and would like people born in this dramatic year to express their reflections and impressions in an essay of no more than 1,500 words.

Submissions can be made either via email to bornin89@ebrd.com, via the website www.ebrd.com/bornin89 or via mail to: EBRD Communications Department, Reference: “Born in ‘89”, One Exchange Square, London, EC2A 2JN. Deadline for submissions is December 31, 2009.

Chaired by the acclaimed novelist Andrey Kurkov, an international jury will select the winners. The first prize will be a one week-internship at the Financial Times and UniCredit Group will award further cash prizes. An award ceremony will take place in spring 2010 at the EBRD in London when also a collection of the best essays will be published.