There is a lot on the political agenda of ELCA at this particular moment. The European Commission is preparing new strategies and initiatives for which they ask relevant stakeholders to provide input. To highlight the opportunities of our green solutions and what we need to support the entrepreneurship for our landscape garden companies, ELCA has recently participated in the following public consultation and call for evidence:

Public consultation on the evaluation on the EU rules on public procurement
For landscape garden companies in the market of public green, public procurement is an important topic. Based on our contacts with entrepreneurs, we concluded that there is room for improvement of the EU rules specifically on enhancing innovations in the framework of policy based green transition and social inclusion, not clustering green projects into other kind of works but into specific green tenders, more attention at tendering authorities for professional knowledge of nature-based solutions and granting projects based on the principle of the economically most advantageous offer. We have sent in this reaction based on a questionnaire and our position paper on this topic. 

Call for evidence for a new European Climate Resilience Framework
The landscape garden sector is one of the leading sectors when we look at the topic Climate Resilience. By creating and maintaining green and nature-based solutions in the urban area, we contribute to preparedness regarding climate risks and deliver strong co-benefits for biodiversity and public health at the same time. That is why we have underlined in this call for evidence, amongst others, the importance of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation as fundament for efforts on Climate Resilience. Also here we replied to this call by answering a detailed questionnaire and attaching our position paper on this topic. 

Upcoming: EU call for evidence new European Strategy for Vocational Education and Training
Our reply on the next interesting call for evidence is already in our agenda. The European Commission assembles feedback for the new European Strategy for Vocational Education and Training. This is also a very relevant topic on our sectoral agenda when we look to the current challenges in organizing the workforce and to have the right professional skills in the team. As ELCA we align here with our ambition to launch a European Network of Centres of Vocational Excellence for landscape gardening. Our position paper is already available. In the coming weeks we are also aiming at personal talks about our ideas with the European Commission and the European Parliament.