The European Commission has launched a competition which consist in design the commemorative 2-euro circulation coin that all 17 euro-area Member States aimed to celebrate the  10 years of the euro.

It can apply to the competition to design the new coin any citizen of the euro area anyone aged 12 or over. The consist in submitting the design via the website launched by the Commission with this aim. The deadline for submissions is 20 May.

The winning design will be selected via a public web vote following pre-selection of the five best designs by a professional jury, over three weeks in June. The winning design will be announced on 30 June 2011.

The creator of the winning design will see his/her design, and initials, on millions of euro coins that will circulate in all euro-area Member States. They will also be awarded a high-value collector's set of euro coins.

On 1 January 2012 it will be ten years since euro banknotes and coins were introduced and the euro became part of daily life for people living in euro area countries. Over 330 million people in 17 EU countries now share one currency, the euro and normally each euro-area Member State issues its own euro coins with a national design on one side. A similar competition was launched in 2008 in order to celebrate the introduction of the euro.