EU Cities for Fair and Ethical Trade: Award Launch and MEP Trip to Ghent

This week was marked by two back-to-back events organised by the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the European Commission around their EU Cities for Fair and Ethical Trade Award.

On Tuesday, 4 February, the Commission hosted a launch event for the second edition of the award in Brussels. It was an opportunity to reflect on key takeaways from the 2018 award, to provide information for applicants, and to discuss how the award is promoting and enabling the uptake of fair and ethical trade on a local level.

The following day, 5 February, a group of MEPs travelled to Ghent to meet with city representatives to learn about the initiatives that the city has undertaken to promote fair and ethical trade. A walking tour of the city allowed the group to see Ghent’s work in practice.

The award is an exciting initiative which has created opportunities for knowledge exchange and network development between cities on best practices for promoting fair and ethical trade. This has been achieved in two crucial ways: firstly, the creation of a network of shortlisted cities to create opportunities for exchanging information; secondly, the ITC has written a report bringing together some of the key takeaways from the 2018/2019 award which provides examples of best practices.

In addition to this, the City of Ghent, as last year’s winner is currently collaborating with the City of Sahnewal, India to implement a development program.

Learn more about the award and apply here.