Croatia shifts from Public Procurement to Green Public Procurement

A 2-day Horizon 2020 Capacity Building/Mediterranean Environment Programme (CB/MEP) seminar was hosted in the city of Zagreb in Croatia on the 12th and 13th of April 2011. It aimed at responding to the capacity building needs of the Croatian Government to shift from public procurement to green public procurement (GPP).

The training offered formal presentations on GPP procedures and practical cases of implementation (Cyprus National Action Plan on GPP and experiences of the Barcelona City council and Basque Country in Spain).

A representative from the European Commission detailed the actual state of GPP, the criteria developed in the EU Member states and future possible changes. She also gave a general introduction to ecolabelling and explained how ecolabels requirements could by used for GPP.

Around 30 participants, mainly from the Central Office of Public Procurement and the Ministry of Economy assisted to the seminar. The great majority of them evaluated very positively the training, which they found very interesting, but they requested more practical cases.

The Regional Activity Center for Cleaner Production (CP/RAC), which organized the event, considers this training as a first step in the implementation of GPP in Croatia and has assured that the activities of the Centre will include projects to support Croatia in this task in the future.

In 2007, the Public Procurement Act was adopted by the Croatian government (harmonised with the EU acquis communautaire). Then a Strategy for the development of the Public Procurement System and the Action Plan for its implementation were adopted in June 2008. But in view of its accession to the European Union, the Croatian Government expressed its interest to start with Green Public Procurement.

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