Bulgarian GPP-STREAM kick-off conference took place on the 23rd of April 2019 in Gabrovo.
The event was opened by Mrs. Tanya Hristova, the mayor of Gabrovo municipality. She gave a speech on the environmental benefits that can be achieved by a partnership between public authorities, citizens and the business. She also put emphasize on the fact that GPP-STREAM is not only an EU project to Gabrovo, but it is also a part of a long-term strategy for the sustainable development of the municipality.
What followed was a brief introduction on the part of Mrs. Desislava Koleva, representative of Gabrovo municipality, outlining the main objectives of the project as well as the main benefits which must be achieved by the municipality. Afterwards, Mr. Georgi Simeonov, from Association CSEG, made a detailed presentation of the project itself and underlined what could be the benefits for municipalities from South Central region of Bulgaria.
The event proceeded with Mrs. Valeria Natzeva, a state expert on GPP at the Public Procurement Agency, who made a presentation on the benefits and challenges of “greening” the public procurements. She also emphasized on how the contracting authorities should apply the GPP criteria in their public procurement because the trend or the movement to circular economy foresees the active utilization of this tool.
Mrs. Lyubomira Kolcheva from Foundation Ecoobshtnost made a presentation on good GPP practices from around the world.
After the presentations, there was a slot dedicated to discussions on GPP issues – some experts from municipal and state bodies expressed their concerns on the GPP policy framework at national and local level and how this policy framework could be improved.
