EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Single Market for Public Administrations Director

Brussels, GROW/G4/

Subject: "Big public buyers and networks" meeting – December 2018

On 5th December, the will organise an ad hoc meeting of the "Big Public Buyers and Networks" pilot initiative.

The meeting will be organised together with the Norwegian National Suppliers Development Programme who will facilitate the meeting, with participation of Iclei and Eurocities. The meeting will take the form of a full day workshop on Zero Emission Construction Sites to prepare the grounds for a cross-border collaboration between several cities and regions – a more strategic and joint approach to green public procurement.

Scope and purpose:

The main focus of this meeting will be to get beyond the talk, and move into action and concrete preparations for our collaborative efforts on Zero Emission Construction Sites, as an example of a joint statements of demand activity under the preliminary activities on the "Big Public Buyers and Networks" pilot initiative.

When the meeting is finished we should have established the following:

• which cities and regions will be on board for this cross-border collaboration; • a work plan for the long, medium and short term work required; (including having mapped barriers, stakeholders and relevant funding sources – among others); • a smart way of organizing future work.

This meeting will serve as a preparatory meeting for a possible future project on "zero emissions construction sites" under the "joint statements of demand" work stream on the "Big Public Buyers and Networks" pilot initiative.

Practical arrangements:

DG GROW is just providing the space for the meeting. No travel or accommodation reimbursements are foreseen by DG GROW.

We are planning to host a warm lunch for the participants (approximately 25 people in total). The lunch will be organised as vouchers to be used the the Breydel cafeteria.

Representatives from cities/ public agencies working on environmental/ climate change issues and those involved in public procurement on a daily basis should attend. A combination from each city is ideal. The registered participants will receive some initial

Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111 questions to prepare for prior to this meeting. A list of confirmed participants so far is attached to this note.

Eurocities have already promoted the meeting and are compiling a list of participants.

Venue: the meeting will take place in the Breydel building Avenue d’Auderghem 40, 1040 Room 05/B in Brussels on 5 December from 9:30 until 15:00.

Draft agenda:

9:30 Registration & coffee/ tea

10:00 Welcome and introduction by DG GROW, ICLEI & Eurocities

10:15 Presentation of the ‘Big Buyers Initiative’ by DG GROW

Q&A

10:45 Workshop on Zero-Emission Construction Sites

Facilitated by Tina Sølvberg, National Suppliers Development Programme/ Innovative Procurements

• Purpose and scope of meeting & round of introductions • Background on Zero Emission Construction Sites: status and the power of joining forces • Diving deeper and establishing a joint work plan:

In this workshop we will be working our way through this topic and a suggested method for engaging the market by going deeper into the following issues and conclude on our work moving forward:

• How and why is this relevant for my city? • Key risks, barriers and opportunities in this field • Who are the key actors/ stakeholders to get on board – closely linked to this work/ keep informed • Who needs to be on board to ensure sufficient buy-in/ ownership in your respective cities • Market engagement preparations – key milestones & how to best organize this work (draft work plan)

14.30-15:00 Concluding remarks on our continued work

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