Public Affairs – Mobilising action for the Fair Trade Public Procurement

After three years of work promoting Fair Trade Public Procurement (FTPP), the Public Affairs project is coming to an end. The last project’s newsletter assessed the many outcomes of the project, which proved to be very efficient in raising awareness about FTPP towards policy makers and public procurers: the issue was addressed in several official EU and national documents. The most recent is the European Commission’s “Buying social” guide. The different events and trainings were also very successful: more and more public authorities at EU, national, regional and local level use FTPP as a tool for sustainable development. The project comes to an end, but work will continue, so the number will keep growing in the future. The EU Observatory on FTPP, set up at the beginning of the project, proved to be a very useful platform to gather and share enriching information and experiences. The website will continue being updated after the project ends.
 

Best practices and case studies were collected all along the project, as well as researches on national and EU laws. They are available on the website, together with many other enriching resources. Since September 2010, the "Buying Fair Trade: European Model on Fair Trade Public Procurement" is available. It aims at guiding public authorities on how to include Fair Trade criteria in their procurement procedures, abiding by the current legal framework of FTPP at EU level. It was launched during the project’s final conference, held in Dortmund, Germany, where around 150 participants shared their FTPP experience.
 

In the newsletter, the following subjects are covered:
 

Public Affairs project’s last review
The much awaited publication from the European Commission "Buying Social: A Guide to taking account of Social Considerations in Public Procurement" is out , available for download here
Inspiration from ... France, UK, Sweden, Germany, Spain, European Parliament
Regional Updates - Belgium, Italy, Spain
Events and Publications - Past and Upcoming

European Fair Trade Association