EN Official Journal of the European Union C 260/17

Opinion of the European Committee of the Regions — Local and regional support for fair trade in Europe

(2015/C 260/04)

Rapporteur Barbara DUDEN (DE/PES), Member of the Hamburg City Parliament’s Committee for European Affairs Reference document

I. GENERAL COMMENTS

THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

1. welcomes the European Parliament’s legislative resolution of 2 April 2014 on the proposal for a European Year for Development (2015) (1). The thematic year should be used not only to raise the profile of EU development policy generally and make it more relevant to EU citizens, but also and above all to pursue an ambitious approach to fair trade which can serve as a benchmark for consistency in development policy;

2. refers to previous CoR opinions and activities that emphasise the particular significance of local and regional authorities and their role in EU external policy action (2);

3. notes the importance of consistency between EU policies, in accordance with Article 21 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and Article 208 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and points out that the Union plays a leading role in shaping and applying policy consistency in the sphere of development. Trade and development policies complement one another and the Committee must be recognised as a driver and coordinator in the development work of local and regional authorities;

4. notes that as far back as 2006, in its resolution on fair trade and development, the European Parliament called for fair trade to be coordinated across the EU and for the concept to be mainstreamed in all policy areas (3). The Commission responded with its communication of 5 May 2009 on Contributing to Sustainable Development: The role of Fair Trade and non-governmental trade-related sustainability assurance schemes (4), which should now feed into a fully-fledged EU fair-trade strategy;

5. refers to its previous opinion (5) which recognises the role of local and regional authorities in trade policy with fair-trade products and calls for a common European Fair Trade Strategy for Local and Regional Authorities;

6. advocates a future development framework that promotes both development and sustainability goals, while also involving local and regional authorities in the process (6);

7. echoes the European Parliament’s call in relation to a global development framework post-2015 (7) for ‘a new global framework that creates a more equitable and sustainable trade scheme based on dialogue, transparency and respect that seeks greater equity in international trade’;

Background

8. notes that over the past ten years, both the volume of trade in certified fair-trade products and the promotion of fair trade at local and regional level in the EU have increased substantially. For instance, there are now over 1 500 Fair Trade Towns in Europe (the number has doubled in the last five years), and the concept of ‘fair-trade regions’ is also gaining in popularity;

9. points to the definition of fair trade by the World Fair Trade Organisation and Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (now Fairtrade International): ‘Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalised producers and workers — especially in the South. Fair Trade Organisations, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade’ (from the Charter of Fair Trade Principles, 2009);

10. points out that the CoR shares the Commission’s view that the voluntary nature of fair trade and equivalent sustainability schemes should be upheld across the EU (8).

II. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Need for an EU fair-trade strategy

11. would like to see a European fair-trade strategy drawn up to promote a consistent and coordinated approach to fair trade across all EU policy areas, in particular trade, development and sustainable consumption and production;

12. is looking forward to the recently announced Communication on Trade and calls on the Commission to make use of this opportunity to outline the concrete measures which it envisages to move towards a coherent framework for EU fair trade;

13. emphasises that such a strategy should promote the active involvement in fair trade of local and regional authorities, as well as other key players such as the European Parliament, the European External Action Service and the European Economic and Social Committee. To this end, the possibility of setting up an interinstitutional working group might be considered, in order to coordinate measures on fair trade and guarantee their consistency and to ensure that EU initiatives and policies in this area are mutually complementary;

Public perceptions of fair trade

14. welcomes the report in the latest edition of Eurobarometer (9) which indicates that half of all EU citizens would be prepared to pay more for a fair-trade product;

15. notes that although recognition of and support for fair trade have improved across Europe, awareness levels vary widely between and within different EU Member States. Whereas a large proportion of the population, over 50 %, are familiar with the fair-trade mark in northern and western Europe, people in most eastern and central European countries still tend not to be familiar with fair trade. An EU strategy on fair trade would also have a positive effect on EU candidate countries;

16. notes that existing international (town) twinning projects (in the EU, Europe and world-wide) should be used to generate awareness of fair trade and for the exchange of good practice at local and regional level. In particular civil society organisations’ efforts to cooperate with local and regional authorities must be supported and stimulated in this context;

17. considers it very important to promote consumer education within the EU, especially in schools, but also in the non-formal education sector, in cooperation with existing initiatives at local and regional level;

Public procurement

18. welcomes the EU’s revised public procurement directives, which make it possible to include fair-trade criteria in public contracts. It is now easier for contracting authorities to rely on voluntary labelling and certification systems so that sustainable development considerations can be taken into account in the public procurement system;

19. calls on the Commission to draw up practical guidelines that provide a real-world explanation of fair trade, alongside other social criteria, in the public procurement system, thus promoting these criteria;

20. appreciates the growing interest in sustainable food production, and above all the demand for locally produced food, among municipalities throughout Europe. This welcome approach is wholly in tune with the consumption of fair-trade products, as many local and regional initiatives in this area demonstrate;

21. considers it very useful for examples of public contracts that take social and ethical criteria on board to be made available to local and regional authorities. Here too, the Commission should encourage closer cooperation between local authorities, for instance when drawing up common criteria and guidelines, negotiating with suppliers, working on long-term supply contracts, and ensuring the coordinated monitoring of public procurement practice for environmental, social and ethical criteria;

22. would like to see local and regional authorities cooperating closely with various interest groups, such as local universities, schools and hospitals. It is of utmost importance here that procurement officers be informed about options for including sustainability criteria in their tender notices, so that they can actually apply them; underlines that this dissemination of information can be achieved through knowledge centres. Knowledge centres can help assist local and regional governments as well as businesses in the implementation of fair procurement by acting as providers of knowledge and expertise;

23. suggests that Member States include in their legal order the possibility of incorporating criteria for positive discrimination towards fair trade products in public procurement;

24. also points out that providing a central purchasing organisation or platform could be an effective way of implementing fair procurement smoothly at local or regional level. Such systems can simplify public procurement of fair-trade products by enabling a number of authorities to coordinate their orders and supplies and so benefit from lower costs;

25. welcomes the current efforts of the EU institutions to support fair trade in their own procedures, for instance with the consumption of fair-trade products at events organised by the EU, and calls for such approaches to be applied systematically. The EU institutions themselves must lead by example. They should not only promote the consumption of fair-trade products among authorities, but also at EU events;

Contribution to ‘fair entrepreneurship’

26. believes that local and regional authorities can encourage businesses in their own region to incorporate fair-trade and corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles into their internal business practices. For instance, they can prompt local hotels and restaurants to buy fair-trade products. It would also be possible to promote the introduction of a fair-trade code of conduct which local authorities could adopt;

27. suggests that fair trade should also be an aim of economic development and part of the CSR strategies of the relevant national business associations. This could be backed up by the development and promotion of multi-stakeholder initiatives (e.g. sustainable trade initiatives in various Member States or the Fair Wear Foundation in certain sectors) or recognised marks (e.g. Fairtrade), with EU support;

28. points out that fair-trade criteria can be applied when providing support for SMEs, as well as business start-ups, from public funding, such as the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRD). Another step towards this would be the organisation of fair-trade events, such as the one held in Dortmund, which is currently the largest specialist and consumer fair-trade event in a German-speaking country;

Supporting local and regional efforts to promote fair trade

29. proposes that, with a view to expanding the concept of fair-trade regions, the EU should examine the extent to which the ‘German capital of fair trade’, modelled on the European capital of culture, would provide a suitable example to give European local and regional authorities the incentive to promote fair trade. Such an initiative should specifically take into account the particular challenges posed in central and eastern Europe;

30. is convinced that the title of European Fair Trade Town/Region would give local authorities a further reason to make a name for themselves beyond their region or country through fair-trade initiatives. The idea would be to directly involve citizens and local grassroots organisations;

Fair trade in the global development framework after 2015 (10)

31. emphasises that the role of local authorities in framing the development agenda post-2015 should be strengthened, as the high-level panel recommends (11). The post-2015 development goals must recognise the role of local authorities as important players in development policy, and the sustainability goals that are currently being discussed must be translated into coordinated national, regional and local strategies;

32. points out that realising sustainability goals will require partnerships between numerous players, and that it should be a priority to promote and provide financial support for partnerships that take all the dimensions of sustainability into account in the sphere of fair trade;

33. welcomes the recently published EC Communication ‘A Global Partnership for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development after 2015’ and in particular the explicit acknowledgement that trade contributes to inclusive growth and sustainable development. Furthermore, the CoR notes with interest the explicit reference to Fair Trade schemes as contributing to economic, environmental and social benefits in this context;

34. believes that hard indicators must be devised to measure whether the goals have been achieved. Fair trade should serve as a benchmark for the sustainability of production and consumption, especially in public procurement; it could also, and above all, be a benchmark for achieving ‘solidarity partnerships’, since very positive experience has been gained with involving different interest groups in this area;

Comparing experience

35. points to a study that has been published on the promotion of fair trade by local and regional authorities, in which the various approaches to fair trade in the EU are described in detail and potential obstacles evaluated. A selection of best practice examples has also been compiled to accompany the study. This material is being published by the CoR in order to create learning and skills communities in the field and to back up the policy recommendations made in the present opinion;

36. welcomes the inclusion of fair trade on the agenda of the upcoming annual Assises of Decentralised Development Cooperation, and thinks that the CoR should use such events to strengthen the link between fair trade and other available measures and existing networks at regional level;

37. urges that funding for Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) policy programmes and other similar programmes should also be used in future to allow more fair-trade town-twinning projects in particular with towns in the South; supports the setup of strategic partnerships between LRAs and Fair Trade producer networks in EU partner countries through the new thematic programme for Civil Society Organisations and Local Authorities;

38. welcomes projects such as the fair-trade meeting in the Loire Region (Conseil Ligérien du Commerce Équitable), which brings all regional fair-trade stakeholders together yearly to compare their experiences in various areas;

EU trade policy

39. points out that the EU is a key player in world trade and is also intent on consolidating its leading position in the sustainability debate. The European institutions are therefore urged to shape EU external trade in such a way that it contributes to sustainable development;

40. is pleased to note certain measures taken by the EU, such as requiring the inclusion of a detailed chapter on sustainable development in trade agreements with non-EU countries; some bilateral agreements even explicitly mention that the signatories support free and fair trade. This opening of markets should also benefit small-scale farmers;

41. stresses the importance of ensuring when such accords are implemented that small-scale farmers in these countries receive help in promoting fair trade, for instance by organising visits of business delegations, in cooperation with local and regional authorities and the EU delegations in partner countries, specifically to small farms so that they can gain an understanding of local situations;

Working conditions in international supply chains

42. notes that the general public and many consumers have become more concerned in recent years about the issue of unacceptable working conditions and human rights violations in producer countries. For instance, both the German and the Dutch governments are working with companies, unions and civil society on similar initiatives in the textile sector to achieve better and more sustainable living and working conditions for employees along the whole supply chain in the global clothing industry, and a similar initiative is currently being considered by the European Commission at EU level;

43. explicitly welcomes such initiatives and calls on the European Commission, as well as the competent national authorities, to develop such projects, in which local and regional authorities should be involved as partners;

Promoting fair trade in bilateral relations

44. recommends encouraging other ways of promoting fair trade, such as linking decentralised development cooperation and fair trade. This could draw on experience with introducing the concept of fair trade into existing partnerships with cities and regions in the global South, as well as in twinning projects within Europe;

45. therefore recommends developing further and promoting fair-trade networks, in particular networks that connect several cities or regions across national boundaries within the EU, such as the cross-border fair-trade network between Metz, Luxembourg, Trier and Saarbrücken.

Brussels, 4 June 2015. The President of the European Committee of the Regions Markku MARKKULA

(1) A7-0384/2013.

(2) For example, the opinions on Empowering local authorities in partner countries for enhanced governance and more effective development outcomes (CDR2010-2013) and Global Europe: a new approach to financing EU external action (CDR732-2012).

(3) European Parliament resolution on Fair Trade and Development (2005/2245(INI)).

(4) COM(2009) 215 final.

(5) CoR opinion on Contributing to Sustainable Development: The role of Fair Trade and non-governmental trade-related sustainability assurance schemes (CDR214-2009).

(6) CoR opinion on Increasing the impact of EU development policy: an agenda for change (CDR364-2011).

(7) European Parliament Report of 17 November 2014 on The EU and the global development framework after 2015 (2014/2143 (INI)).

(8) CoR, op. cit. Opinion on Contributing to Sustainable Development (CDR214-2009).

(9) Special Eurobarometer 421: The European Year for Development — Citizens’ Views on Development, Cooperation and Aid.

(10) A decent life for all: from vision to collective action (in preparation).

(11) Report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, 30 May 2013.