In 2022, the fifth round of EUPL was launched. It is accompanied by a complete restructuring of the Prize. Instead of awarding one laureate in each of the participating countries, a seven member European jury will for the first-time award one overall winner for this edition, together with recognising five special mentions. This prize will be awarded on the basis of a list of books nominated at national level, one for each participating country. The novels will be proposed by national entities familiar with the literary scene of their country, who are used to promoting their own literature abroad and who have expertise in literary quality, assessing the translation and export potential of a book.

Below is the list of participating organisations for each edition, as well as a set of selection rules that all national organisations undertake to respect. Prior to their selection process, the nominating bodies had the opportunity to adapt the criteria, in agreement with the Steering Committee of the Prize in order to better reflect the reality of their national market. If adjustments need to be made to the criteria, they are described separately for each country.

1. Rules for eligible books/authors

The aim of the prize is to give international visibility to authors who are at the beginning of their career in the country of their nationality/residence and who have started to have international visibility. National nominating organizations are invited to submit a national nomination, which consists of a book and a nominated author. Nominated books must meet the following rules and criteria:

• the proposed book must be written in one or more of the officially recognized languages in that country (officially recognized languages are those defined by the Constitution or the relevant national law of the country concerned; if there are several, they must be mentioned)
• the author of the proposed book must have the nationality or be a permanent resident of the selected country
• the proposed book must respect the European Union's values of respect and tolerance
• the proposed book must demonstrate both literary excellence and be translatable
• the nominated book must ideally have been published no more than 18 months before the date of announcement of the prize winner (deadline for 2024: 4 October 2022); however, EUPL may reconsider this criterion depending on the availability of the book in bookshops and whether the promotion of the author is still possible and relevant (for EUPL2024, it is the case for : Bulgaria, Iceland, Latvia, Portugal and Slovenia where the book has been published no more than 24 months before the date of announcement of the prize winner).
• the nominated book must be the last book published by the author
• the author of the nominated book must have published between 2 and 4 fiction books in total (other genres are excluded, unless the author is already known on the international scene through this publication)
• the author of the nominated book cannot be currently employed by the european institutions
• all books published by the author must not have been translated into more than 4 languages
• the selection of the national nominee must be the result of a consensus within the organization.

2. Rules concerning the participation of national nominative organisations

By agreeing to participate in EUPL, National Nominating Organisations accept the following rules and principles:

• the selection of the national candidate must be made fairly and independently by the competent organisation designated by EUPL
• all decisions must be made on the basis of consensus within the organization
• bodies designated by EUPL cannot name an author with whom they have direct links
• organisations designated by EUPL may not designate a book published by a publishing house with which they have direct links.
• the content of the designated book must respect the values of the European Union, namely respect for human rights, human dignity, freedom and equality, as well as the rights of persons belonging to minorities
• the author of the proposed book cannot currently be employed by the european institutions
• the author of the selected book must be willing to take part in EUPL-related activities.