A two-day workshop "Sustainable Public Procurement and New Opportunities to Support SMEs" was held
The program of the event included the speeches by the representatives of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy, the EU Delegation to Ukraine, international and national experts.
On October 19, 2021 Ruslan Strilets, Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine opened the workshop with a welcoming speech.
"The implementation of the European Green Deal in Ukraine creates a number of strategic opportunities for development. The industrial visa-free regime will facilitate the integration of Ukrainian industries into the EU's new industrial processes. The expected restrictions on the "environmental friendliness" of goods and services placed on the EU market may create new niches for Ukrainian producers by displacing imports into the EU from other countries.
Greening public procurement at this stage will help achieve the goals of state environmental policy and provide additional government support for the green transition for business, creating additional market demand for better products that are produced using the best technologies of resource-efficient and cleaner production.
"I want to urge business to take into account the goals of the European Green Deal today in the process of strategic planning of its development. Ukraine will move in the same direction as Europe, "said Mr. Strilets.
Moderator
Olga Tereshchenko, Head of Training and Analytical Center for Improving Procurement of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE).
The first day of the workshop was devoted to the study of international experience, problematic issues of Ukrainian SMEs and SME support tools developed and promoted in the framework of national initiatives and technical support projects.
Laetitia Montero, Economic and Trade Policy Officer, United Nations Environment Program
The importance of reliable information on sustainability and the role of ecolabelling
Farid Yaker, Economic and Trade Policy Officer, United Nations Environment Program
Vyacheslav Bykovets, General Director of the Union of Entrepreneurs of Small, Medium and Privatized Enterprises of Ukraine, Chairman of the Committee of the Ukrainian CCI of Small and Medium Business Entrepreneurs, spoke about the state of development of SMEs in Ukraine.
Barriers to sustainable SME development
In his speech, he focused on the government participation in supporting SMEs, the role of SMEs in greening the economy and the problems of SME participation in tenders and the recommendations for overcoming them.
The speech of Lydia Pashchuk, Ph.D., Head of the School of SMEs, president of the Vasyl Khmelnytsky Foundation K.FUND outlined the activities of the Foundation aimed at supporting the development of SMEs in Ukraine.
About K.FUND activity and the ecosystem approach to business development in Ukraine
The second part of the first day focused on tools to support the green modernization of SMEs.
Svitlana Berzina, President of the NGO Living Planet, spoke about the updated national legislation and standards in the field of public procurement that will affect the formation of green markets. She also presented the SPP criteria developed in the framework of the EU4Environment project: new categories of goods, works and services and the updated ecolabelling standards, the application of which will give preference to a more environmentally friendly offer in the field of public procurement.
Andriy Vorfolomeyev, Ph.D, director of the Center for Resource Efficient and Clean Production presented the activities aimed at supporting the production modernization of SMEs.
Current trends in the introduction of resource-efficient production in Ukraine
According to the Law, when setting requirements for the subject of procurement, in addition to mandatory state requirements, the customer may refer to voluntary standards and labels, provided that the principles and methods of such labels are standardized and the declared environmental characteristics confirmed by the competent authority. Svitlana Perminova, director of the Center for Environmental Certification and Labelling, spoke about the requirements for products to be ecolabelled and how they are confirmed..
About the type I ecolabelling program (according to ISO 14024) Green Crane
The success stories of the implementation of environmental policy, product certification and application of the ecolabel Green Crane by Ukrainian producers-industry leaders, trading the products marked by ecolabels were presented by:
Oksana Yefimova, Head of the Technological Control Department and Laboratory of Planeta Plastic
Planet Plastic - a factory of polyethylene products
Vladislav Sergeyev, product manager of Slobozhanska Building Ceramics
On October 20, 2021, the second day of the workshop was opened with welcoming speeches by Chloe Allio, Head of the Third Department of Assistance Programs "Economic Cooperation, Energy, Infrastructure and Environment" of the EU Delegation to Ukraine and Anna Yuldashova, Acting Director of the Department of Public Procurement of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.
Halyna Buzan, Executive Secretary of the National Technical Committee for Standardization TC 82 "Environmental Protection", spoke about the tools of sustainable public procurement for customers and suppliers in Ukraine, the importance of accreditation of conformity assessment bodies, warnings and examples of appeal procedures.
The practice of using SPP in Ukraine
Currently, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine performs two main functions in the field of public procurement: first, it considers cases of violation of legislation on protection of economic competition. Secondly, it considers complains and makes decisions regarding the observance / non-observance by the participants of the legal relations of the public procurement procedure. Olga Nechitaylo, the AMCU state commissioner, reported on the practice of appeal procedures related to violations of public procurement legislation and the responsibility of violators.
Serhiy Pavliuk, a representative of Transparency International Ukraine, the organization which has a comprehensive approach to developing and implementing changes to reduce corruption, spoke about responsibility, monitoring and control in the field of public procurement.
Evaluation of the public procurement market using BI Prozorro
Natalia Puhalska, a lawyer and expert of the NGO Living Planet spoke about new forms, requirements and trends that always give rise to various forms of unfair competition; the responsibility for providing inaccurate or unverifiable data by bidders; specific examples and results of appeal procedures and court decisions.
What are the environmental characteristics of products to be declared and under what conditions - the answer to this question can be found in a speech by Svitlana Berzina, Deputy Chairman of the National Technical Committee for Standardization TC 82 "Environmental Protection".
Principles and methods of application of ecological self-declarations (II type ecolabelling)
Valentyna Mykusevych, consultant and auditor of the DQS - Ukraine management systems certification body, reported on the requirements for the implementation of safety management systems and food certification schemes..
HACCP AND ISO common and differences
Yevhen Mylovanov, Chairman of the Board of the Federation of Organic Movement of Ukraine spoke about the prospects for the development of the organic sector in Ukraine and the application of requirements for compliance with organic standards in the field of public procurement.
The topic of voluntary certification was continued by Svitlana Berzina, who spoke about environmental criteria and the criteria for the naturalness of food and beverages.
The criteria for the naturalness of food and beverages and methods of confirming compliance
Lesya Nikolaeva, a representative of the EU4Environment project, summed up the results of the two-day workshop, and spoke about the next steps in the field of sustainable public procurement and ecolabelling within the EU-funded EU4Environment program.
The workshop was attended by 295 representatives of SMEs, authorities, public procurement, experts and other stakeholders, who further assessed positively the program, the organization of the event and the speakers.
Organizers
The United Nations Environment Program together with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and the NGO Living Planet
The workshop is part of EU4Environment program, which helps six partner countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, preserve their natural capital and improve the quality of the environment for people by supporting activities, related to environmental protection, demonstrating and unlocking opportunities for environmental growth and creating mechanisms for better management of environmental risks and consequences.