EU Green Week focuses on green jobs
The EU’s Green Week 2017, a significant environmental event in the EU calendar, will this year focus on green jobs, with a series of events and conferences to take place in member states across Europe throughout this week (29 May – 2 June).
he series of events will provide the backdrop to the opening of the trilogue between the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament on the Circular Economy Package today (30 May), with the Council reportedly wanting to reduce the package’s recycling target, while the Parliament wants it raised to 70 per cent.
The Europe-wide initiative, run in partnership with European Sustainable Development Week (30 May–5 June) and a variety of other organisations including EUobserver, Politico and the European Solidarity Corps, will promote and explore the transition to the circular economy and the role of labour within that, in the context of a burgeoning European green jobs sector.
The environmental goods and services sector (EGSS) has experienced steady growth, providing 4.2 million jobs in 2012, an increase of 20 per cent since 2000.
The series of events over this week will highlight the green economy’s potential to provide stable, skilled jobs, while also impressing the need to invest in and adapt education and training systems to ensure that workers have the skills that they need to succeed in the sector.
Each day during the week is dedicated to a different subsidiary topic and the main events will take place in Malta, which holds the presidency of the European Council for the first half of 2017, Brussels, and Essen, the European Green Capital for 2017.
Each day during the week has a different theme. Yesterday focused on green jobs in the countryside, with an event in Malta while today (30 May), Brussels will host an EU Green Jobs Summit and Green Awards Ceremony (available to livestream), with the day revolving around green jobs and water.
This will be followed with other panels and discussions based around ‘Working for a greener future’ (Wednesday), ‘Green “blue jobs” for oceans’ (Thursday) and ‘Green jobs in your cities’ (Friday).
The Green Jobs Summit is the standout event on the programme, with participants coming together to reflect on successful EU environmental policies and working out strategies of how to create more green jobs and helping people to develop the skills they need to do them.
Other events across the week include events on sustainable tourism in Barcelona, the green potential of farming and forestry in Brussels, and green growth in Europe’s cities in Oslo, which all took place on Monday, as well as a ‘Green Mingle’ in Bristol as part of its Green Capital Partnership on Thursday, an event in Stockholm on Friday about ocean protection and the Sustainable Development Goals, and an event in Paris on the Circular Economy and green jobs, also on Friday.
For more information on EU Green Week, visit the European Commission’s dedicated webpage.
