EU Conference: ‘From local to EU level: Scaling up Fair Trade in Europe’

Back-to-back to the first EU Cities for Fair and Ethical Trade Award Ceremony on 27 June, the Fair Trade Advocacy Office is organising the EU conference;´From local to EU level: Scaling up Fair Trade in Europe´. 

Hosted by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), the conference wants to seize the Award Ceremony as an opportunity to facilitate an exchange among EU local authorities on how they are supporting Fair Trade and how the EU could support the upscale of their local Fair Trade projects.

The discussions will feed a list of policy recommendations that the Fair Trade Advocacy Office will present to the upcoming European Commission in order to further support local authorities’ work on Fair Trade. These recommendations will be also summarised in a publication which will be released by the end of 2018.

DRAFT AGENDA  

27 June 2018

16.30 – 16.40 Welcome speech

Helmut Scholz, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and the European Parliament Fair Trade Working Group (EP FTWG)

16.40 – 17.40 Stakeholders panel with mayors from EU cities committed to Fair Trade: Unlocking the potential of local authorities to promote Fair Trade

Moderator: Elen Jones, Policy Adviser – Globally Responsible Wales Office of the Future Generations Commissioner

17.40 – 17.50 Concluding remarks by MEP McAvan, Chair of the EP FTWG

17.50 – 18.00 Joint photo opportunity for mayors and MEPs committed to Fair Trade

18:00 – 19:00 Fair Trade cocktail

 ***

28 June 2018

9.00 – 9.20 Welcome coffee

9.20 – 9.25 Opening by Ms. Micaela Fanelli, Member of the European Committee of the Regions and of the jury of the EU Cities for Fair and Ethical Trade Award

9.25 – 9.40 Preliminary findings of the research “Scaling up Fair Trade in Europe: barriers and opportunities for local authorities”, Alice Sinigaglia, Consultant for the Fair Trade Advocacy Office

9.40 – 11.30 Looking forward: how can the next EU Commission further support local
authorities’ work on Fair Trade? (first part)

Participants join one of the two conference’s workshops below. During the workshops,
participants will contribute to develop specific recommendations to the EU on what
could be done to further support local authorities’ work on Fair Trade.

▪ Workshop 1a: Public procurement and Fair Trade
The workshop aims to discuss the legal and other obstacles or questions that
contracting authorities that want to buy Fair Trade products face in Europe.
Moderator: Peter Möhringer, Project Coordinator – Fair Trade Advocacy
Office

Rapporteur: Sergi Corbalán, Executive Director – Fair Trade Advocacy Office

▪ Workshop 1b: National and EU awards for local authorities promoting Fair Trade
The workshop aims to discuss about the current national and EU awards aiming at rewarding local authorities promoting Fair Trade and the possible synergies among them.

Moderator: Lothar Boeykens, Coordinator – Fair Trade Towns Campaign
Flanders, Belgium
Rapporteur: MEP Helmut Scholz

11.30 – 11.45 Coffee break

11.45 – 13.00 Looking forward: how can the next EU Commission further support local
authorities’ work on Fair Trade? (second part)

▪ Workshop 2a: Fair Textile Public Procurement
The workshop aims to feature some good practice on fair textiles public
procurement from local authorities and networks in Europe. It also aims to
discuss about the obstacles that contracting authorities and the private sector
face, as well as what the EU could do to facilitate a better matching of supply
and demand in this area.
Moderator: Peter Möhringer, Project Coordinator, Fair Trade Advocacy Office
Rapporteur: MEP Lola Sánchez

▪ Workshop 2b: Capacity building and funding opportunities to support the
uptake and the upscale of local Fair Trade initiatives
The workshop aims to identify the current capacity building needs of local
authorities that aim to promote Fair Trade and the funding opportunities that
are currently available to help them implement and upscale local Fair Trade
initiatives.
Moderator: Lisa Hermann, Head of Campaigning, Fairtrade Germany
Rapporteur: MEP Arne Lietz

13:00 – 14:00 Networking lunch

14.00 – 14.30 Workshops wrap-up session
In plenary, the rapporteurs of the workshops will summarise the main
recommendations raised by the participants of the conference. Conclusions will be
summarised in a publication which will be released by the end of 2018.

14.30 – 15:00 Q&A & debate
In plenary, participants will have the opportunity to react to the main recommendations
presented by the rapporteurs.

15.00 – 15.30 ‘Trade Fair Live Fair’ : Presentation of future small grants opportunity for small
cross-border actions by local authorities and Civil Society Organisations
promoting Fair Trade by Sergi Corbalán, Executive Director of the Fair Trade
Advocacy Office

15.30 – 15:45 “Trade Fair Live Fair” future small grants opportunity: Q&A
Participants will have the opportunity to ask more details on the small grant opportunity
grant and how to take part in the initiative.

15.45- 16.00 Concluding remarks by Wangeci Gitata, Resource Mobilisation & Partnerships
Manager, Fairtrade Africa, and Felicitas Schuldes, Fair Trade and Public
Procurement Officer, Engagement Global

For any questions, please email sinigaglia@fairtrade-advocacy.org