2026EUROPA – 70 Years of the EUROPA Stamp - Set

European collaboration

Since 1956, a EUROPA stamp has been issued every year, and this year it is celebrating its 70th anniversary with a special anniversary design.

EUROPA stamps are issued as a symbol of European collaboration and integration with the aim of raising awareness of Europe’s roots, culture and history. Since 1993, PostEurop, the association of European public postal operators, has been responsible for them. Up until 1973 (with the sole exception of 1957), they were issued with one standard design on a Eu- rope-related topic, but since then, the norm has been for the national postal services to inter- pret the topic for that year and come up with their own designs.

For the anniversary issue in 2026, the same design will once again be used for all countries. It was chosen as the winning design from 15 creative submissions entered in a design com- petition, having been created for the Finnish postal service by the German-Finnish artist Klaus Welp. The design combines abstract and symbolic elements: the ascending diagonal dotted line represents both the perforations of a stamp and the progressive work of Pos- tEurop, while the seven dots represent the seven decades of collaboration between the postal services on the European continent. The colour gradients and dotted design in the background create a coherent and lively surface. It reflects the colourful mix of colours in the European flags representing each of the association’s member countries. The designer aims to underscore the importance of reliable systems of communication in these turbulent times.