FORUM WARE INTERNATIONAL 1/2 (2009) - 33 - THE ROLE OF “GREEN” PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN ESTABLISHING SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION IN BULGARIA Elka VASILEVA*, Daniela IVANOVA*, Nina TIPOVA*, Stilian STEFANOV* Abstract: The formulation of sustainable consumption and production policy in Europe requires the combining of different policies and tools, a variety of actions on all levels of government facilitated by stakeholders and all the sectors influencing the environment (e.g. energy, agriculture, transport, etc.). The clear cut initiative for environmental management and the solid programmes for public procurement (e.g. „green‖ public procurement - GPP) both in the public sector and in the private- public partnerships can have strong impact on sustainable consumption and production in different ways. The aim of this article is to study the European Practices of ―green‖ public procurement and their role in the establishment of sustainable consumption and production as an example to Bulgaria. So far, Bulgaria has not had definite and focused governmental policy for establishing sustainable production and consumption. It should be noted that there is no coordinated approach in harmonising the policies, programmes and projects in different sphere and on various levels of the overall process of sustainable consumption and production. As a result, sustainable patterns of consumption, including GPP, are not yet popular in the country or are applied very restrictively. Efforts both on political and operational level are necessary in order to achieve the potential benefits of GPP. Key words: “green‖ public procurement (GPP), sustainable consumption and production, sustainable public practices, Bulgaria Introduction The concept of ―sustainable consumption and production‖ (SCP) was first formulated at the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. Then the relation between environmental pollution, consumption and production was officially discussed. The change in patterns of consumption and production was one of the main objectives set in the Johannesburg Declaration signed by 109 heads of state and government in August 2002 during the ―World Summit on Sustainable Development‖ in Johannesburg, South Africa. At this forum all countries were invited to take part in the development of 10 year framework for supporting regional and national initiative for sustainable consumption and production. In response to this in May 2003 a meeting of experts was held in Marrakesh, Morocco which marked the beginning of the so-called Marrakesh process of sustainable consumption and production. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in cooperation with governmental and non-governmental organisations started a number of activities related to sustainable consumption and production issues such as facilitating the public dialogue through work meetings on national and regional level and the creation of national public councils and partnerships. As a result of the meeting in Johannesburg in March 2003 the European Council identified sustainable consumption and production and the development of a 10-year programme as the key priorities for the European Union (EU) (European Commission, 2004b). The European Commission and UNEP passed the decision to expand cooperation and the political dialogue in popularising sustainable consumption and production (European Stakeholder Meeting on SCP, 2004; Sustainable Energy Consumption, 2005). SCP is also increasingly taken into account in the EU policy and legal framework. For instance, the renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy defines SCP as one of the key challenges for Sustainable Development in Europe and aims to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns (European Council, 2006) (Fig 1).