EU Green Week 2019

EU Green Week 2019 takes place from 13 to 17 May. The official opening event – to be attended by the European Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella and by the Marshal of the Mazowieckie Region, Adam Struzik – will be hosted by the Mazowieckie Region and held in Warsaw, Poland on 13 May.

The EU Green Week high-level conference is scheduled for 15 to 17 May in Brussels. Open to environmental stakeholders and the wider public, it also includes the European Week for Waste Reduction award ceremony hosted by the EU Committee of the Regions and the LIFE award ceremony on 15 and 16 May respectively.

An occasion for discussion

Organised by the European Commission Directorate-General for the Environment for nearly 20 years and attracting leading figures from across the globe, Green Week is the biggest annual occasion for discussion of EU environmental policy. It fosters debate among European-, national- and local-level stakeholders in order to generate input into policymaking and implementation.

These debates support the growth of a Europe-wide community of actors involved in environmental capacity building and sharing of practices, as well as motivating citizens to engage with EU environmental efforts and make their own contributions.

The 2019 theme

EU environmental laws have a huge impact on our lives. They improve water and air quality, protect nature and encourage recycling. But to make a real difference, they must be implemented in full.

On 27 March 2019, the European Commission published a set of reports on the state of implementation of environmental laws in Europe: the Environmental Implementation Review. EU Green Week 2019 will weigh up the findings of this Review, asking questions like: How do EU environmental laws benefit citizens? What does successful implementation look like? Why and where do implementation gaps exist? How can stakeholders take ownership of EU laws? And how can the EU facilitate this while making sure citizens' voices are heard?

Partner events

Like every year, the EU Green Week will include many partner events organised around Europe in April and May by a large variety of stakeholders, including local authorities, NGOs and businesses. Examples include: a mock trial on a problem related to application of environmental legislation organised by students at Lyon Law School on 26 April; a living lab

in Gothenburg on 8 May, which enables suppliers of fossil-free products to present them to potential buyers such as Hoppet, a fossil-free preschool; and the Know What’s Below workshop on underwater heritage conservation on 15 to 19 May, largely held on a boat off Italy’s Aegadian Islands.

#MyGreenAction challenge

Running from 21 March to 10 May, the #MyGreenAction challenge invites young Europeans to share photos, videos or illustrations of actions they take to ensure a greener future via their own Instagram or Twitter accounts, or below official European Commission #MyGreenAction challenge Facebook posts. Every two weeks, three submissions will be chosen to feature on Commission social media channels and the best 10 entries overall will be included in a summary video to be shown at the EU Green Week.

European elections

EU Green Week 2019 takes place during the run-up to the European elections on 23 to 26 May. By demonstrating the added value of the EU’s environmental work in recent years, it represents an opportunity to promote fully informed democratic engagement (especially among first-time voters).

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