On January 30-31, 2020 the 11th Plenary Meeting of the national network of environmental authorities and managing institutions "Partnership: Environment for Development" was held.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the units the Network consists of: the Ministry of Climate, the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, the General Directorate for Environmental Protection, regional directorates for environmental protection, marshal offices, as well as other invited guests.
The meeting was opened and chaired by Marek Kajs Deputy General Director for Environmental Protection, who at the beginning welcomed all gathered and thanked for the past year and the involvement of members in the work of working groups.
An important point of the meeting was the acceptance of the declaration of accession of the State Water Holding Polish Waters to the "Partnership: Environment for Development" Network, which was handed to Director Marek Kajs by Joanna Kopczyńska - Deputy President of the Polish Waters for Water Environment Management. The participation of experts from Polish Waters, who with their experience and knowledge will support the operation of the Network, will allow even better implementation of the goals and tasks of the Working Group on Water and Sewage Management.
The thematic block concerning the Network's work in 2019 was started by a representative of the Ministry of Climate Piotr Czarnocki, who presented a summary of the meeting of the European network ENEA-MA, which took place on October 1st, 2019 in Thessaloniki. Then Ewelina Kosela representing the Secretariat of the Network presented information on the tasks carried out by the Secretariat last year. In 2019, over 27 meetings of Working Groups were held (including 10 study visits domestic and outside Poland) and 3 expert opinions were carried out. In addition, the presentation included the objectives for the future years of the Network, including, among others, ensuring efficient exchange of knowledge, experience and good practices between the entities associated in the Network.
A key part of the meeting was the presentation of the effects of the work of individual Working Groups conducted over the past year, which were presented by Groups Presidents. At the same time, initial action plans for 2020 were presented.
As part of the 11th Plenary Meeting, the Director of the Environmental Projects Implementation Department of the General Directorate for Environmental Protection Michał Rakowski drew attention to the need of creating a new working group whose work will focus on the topic of green public procurement.
The Director drew attention that this topic is very important in the context of progressive, unfavorable changes in the state of the natural environment and by using their purchasing power to choose environmentally friendly goods, services and works, they can make an important contribution to sustainable consumption and production . Therefore, the works of the newly created working group should focus on developing a model of good practices in the application of environmental aspects in public procurement.
After the plenary committee prioritized the Network's activities, meeting participants were introduced to the details of the LIFE Tree Check integrated project, which aims to support European cities in dealing with the effects of climate change by improving green infrastructure. A presentation on the project implemented by the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland as part of the LIFE financial instrument was given by Przemysław Lewicki, a representative of the company LEMITOR Ochrony Środowiska sp. z o.o. sp. which is the project's partner.
The 11th Plenary Meeting of the Network was organized by the General Directorate for Environmental Protection as part of project No. POPT.02.01.00-00-0287 / 19. Continued support for the functioning of the network of environmental bodies and institutions managing EU funds "Partnership: Environment for Development" for 2020-2021 co-financed from the Cohesion Fund under the Operational Program Technical Assistance 2014-2020.
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