Region of East Macedonia and Thrace organized on Thursday, 19 November 2020, the 5th partner meeting of the CircPro project. The meeting was held online via zoom platform.
The event was attended by representatives of the Region and the Regional Development Fund of East Macedonia and Thrace, representatives of the partners of the CircPro project, as well as members of the local stakeholders’ group of each partner.
The meeting was greeted by the mandated Regional Advisor of European Projects, Mr. A. Politis who pointed out that the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace through its participation in the CircPro project gains knowledge and experience for the implementation of public procurement that saves resources and promotes recovery of recycled materials through overall management of their life cycle and the promotion of Circular Economy. At the same time, the public authorities of the region, as buyers, cooperate with companies of the Region, in order to identify procedural and legal obstacles for the implementation of public procurement with circular elements. Thus, the Region is preparing for the transition from a linear to a circular model of economy in accordance with the European Green Deal for the promotion of green growth and contributes to the emergence and support of businesses as well as new business models and networks based on circularity for the introduction of new and innovative products and services. He noted that already in the Region there is a presence of such companies which are good examples of integration of circular economy practices in the stages of production, processing, packaging, distribution and final consumption of the products they produce. In closing, he noted that the Region is learning, improving its human resources, supporting businesses and preparing for the immediate future of the Circular Economy and the new NSRF for the period 2021-2027.
Afterwards, the floor was given to Mr. G. Kremlis as Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister on energy, climate, environment and circular economy and Honorary Director of the European Commission. Mr. Kremlis pointed out the importance of energy savings in all sectors as well as the necessity of circular public procurement which contribute to the strengthening of the circular economy. He also referred to the creation of a "roadmap" for the upgrade of the circular economy plan throughout the EU.
The first part of the meeting included a brief report on the progress of the CircPro in terms of the main objectives of the project, its expected results and implications, followed by an extensive report on policy formulation for circular economy with the presentation of the Greek National Strategy for circular economy, the National Action Plan for green public procurement, the models of energy saving contracts in the public sector through the PRODESA project and the Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement.
In the second part of the web meeting the floor was shared between project partners where they presented good practices of implementing public circular procurements in order to exchange information. The presented projects were related to energy efficiency and public lighting, models of co-heating and reuse cooperation, energy procurements procedures as means of environmental protection and finally models for the energy efficiency of buildings.
The event ended with the exchange of contact details of the participants in order to inform and clarify points that may not have been covered during the meeting. The participants thanked the organizers and made an appointment for their next meeting.
You can find the webinar video in the following link
drive.google.com/file/d/1FB2-WOobmaotVf0VasmxIz33g-qyw9oF/view
