The 2nd Annual Network meeting of the European NGO Network on GPP, coordinated by ICLEI Europe, took place in Lisbon, 13th February 2019, hosted by Quercus – National Association of Nature Conservatory. Seventeen NGOs from across Europe gathered to exchange on the topic of GPP.

The discussions during the meeting were based on the first-hand experiences made through the delivery of GPP activities by all NGOs. These activities took place over the course of 2018 and early 2019, aiming to advance GPP uptake in their local context. The activities ranged from workshops, specific training, and research surveys to roundtable discussions.

Key themes throughout the full-day event were what role NGOs can and should play in the uptake of GPP in public procurement, how to establish wider network ties or more focused ones, the opportunity for NGOs to support the new EC GPP Criteria and the impact created through delivered activities.

The event was facilitated by Peter Defranceschi (ICLEI Europe), Nuno Prata (City of Lisbon), Jean-Pierre Schweizer (EEB) and Abby Semple (Public Procurement Analysis) enriched the meeting through keynote presentations. In addition, the emphasis was placed on GPP in food procurement with three NGOs (ECODES, Legambiente, Mondo) recapping on their activities.

A clear outcome of the meeting was that the NGOs significantly benefited from being part of such a European Network and at the same time contribute through their expertise, diversity and motivation to a broader uptake of GPP across Europe.