Organised by Forum Europe in partnership with Dell, this conference will explore how governments can leverage their buying power more effectively to support the transition to a resource-efficient, energy-efficient and circular economy and foster sustainable economic development.

In 2014, the EU revised its public procurement laws in order to facilitate the pursuit of strategic policy objectives, including environmental and social sustainability. In its October 2017 Communication “Making Public Procurement work in and for Europe”, the European Commission found that the majority of public contracts were still awarded exclusively on the basis of the lowest price and stated that the time was “right to focus on the smart application of the new rules in practice”.

This high-level conference will debate how the EU and Member States can do more to ensure a wider uptake of circular economy and other sustainability strategies in strategic public procurement at all levels of government, challenges and opportunities for procurement authorities and suppliers, as well as best practices from selected industries.