ELCA januári hírlevél

JANUARY 2025 NEWSLETTER

Welcome to this new edition of our digital newsletter.
With nice to know and need to know about our association and our activities.

In this edition:

• January 31st, 2025: CoF online inspiration session on outcomes of EPLUG and ARtemis
• ELCA Exchange: British Columbia, Canada
• ELCA asks for feedback on the evaluation of the EU Public Procurement Directive
• Next ELCA professional excursion: Estonia is calling!
• ELCA implements a new digital members platform in GlueUp
• Lobby Flash: First meeting of the expert group EU Nature Restoration Regulation
• Thank you for taking part in the ELCA Survey!
• Welcome to our new members of the Committee of Firms!
• Results annual plan 2024 ELCA: Ready to Grow

Enjoy the ELCA-news!

January 31st, 2025: CoF online inspiration session on outcomes of EPLUG and ARtemis

The organization of the workforce is one of the biggest issues for owners and managers of landscape garden companies. How do we find the right skilled people and how do we keep the skills in our workforce up to date? For ELCA this is also a very important topic. We want to support our members with concrete tools for developing their workforce.

In the EU-funded projects EPLUG (European Platform of Urban Greening) and ARtemis, ELCA worked together with schools and landscape garden companies in different European countries to exchange on what kind of skills we need, what kind of vocational training programs should be developed and how new techniques will enhance the learning outcomes. Last September, both projects were completed. What have we learned from EPLUG and ARtemis, what are the results and how do they benefit our sector and members? Anu Vaagen and Raili Laas, who represented ELCA in these two projects and brought in the expertise on behalf of our sector, will present the outcomes of these projects during the next CoF online inspiration. This session, for which you are kindly invited, takes place on Friday January 31st, 2025.

The online inspiration session will be conducted in English.

Date: Friday January 31st, 2025

Time: 9.00 CET

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85430692408?pwd=1nCHUi3LP3vmi5tXw1nj26DlMWOnXZ.1

ELCA asks for feedback on the evaluation of the EU Public Procurement Directive

The European Commission has recently started the evaluation of the European Public Procurement Directive. ELCA wants to send in a reaction on behalf of the landscape garden sector and has asked its national members and the members of the Committee of Firms to provide input.

The Public Procurement Directive is relevant for the landscape garden companies that work in the market of public green. With this evaluation we have the opportunity to make clear what the experiences with public procurement in our sector are and what points of attention we have. The European Commission aims to have a good understanding of how effective this directive is by looking for example at the high level of competition in the single market, the increased participation of small and medium sized companies in procurement procedures and the simplification of the procedures themselves.

To structure the input on behalf of the landscape garden sector, we have asked our members input on the following questions:

• In your opinion: what goes well in the public procurement procedures?
• Which problems do you see in the current public procurement practice?
• What suggestions do you have to improve the public procurement procedures?
• Do you have an example of a best-practice and/or a worst-practice?

Answers may be brief and written in English, German or French. The deadline for sending in the input is Friday February 14th at the latest and can be send to contact@elca.info

Next ELCA professional excursion: Estonia is calling

Did you already block the following dates in your agenda: May 29th till 31st 2025? On these dates the next edition of our professional excursion of the
ELCA Committee of Firms will take place.

Estonia is the place to be of the next professional excursion. The draft program is ready and the communication about what will be waiting for you is about to start. Our Estonian colleagues will launch a special website soon on which you find all the details of the excursion and where you can register for participation. As soon as the website is ready, you will receive a mail.
We are already looking forward to meeting you in Tallinn!

By the way, if you don’t want to miss the professional excursion in the Autumn then it is good to block these dates as well in your agenda. Please reserve October 8th till 11th in your agenda for the professional excursion in Finland. We have heard about some first ideas on the content of the program, and we can tell you this; you don’t want to miss it!

ELCA implements a new digital members platform in GlueUp

ELCA wants to create an online platform where our members can interact and find interesting tools. This platform is going to be created in GlueUp. At this moment the first steps in the implementation are made, but there is still some work to do.

It was already a longer expressed wish to create a digital platform where members of the Committee of Firms can interact with each other and where they can find interesting tools for the management of their company. After an orientation on possible applications, the ELCA Board has chosen for the GlueUp Platform. This platform offers the possibility of creating your own business card, browsing through the business cards of the other members of the Committee of Firms, finding online entrepreneurial tools and taking part in for example online meetings that are hosted by the GlueUp Platform.
At the end of last December, the members of the Committee of Firms have received a mail to update their data in the system. This is the first step in the implementation process. At the same time, the platform is being prepared for sharing online information from the EU-funded projects EPLUG (European Platform for Urban Greening) and ARtemis. Our Exchange team, consisting of Anu Vaagen and Raili Laas, is taking care for that. The aim is, that our online inspiration sessions of the Committee of Firms are in future also hosted on the GlueUp Platform. We are working now on the completion of all functionalities. The payment module, with which our CoF-members can pay their membership fee, does not work yet. The members are kept updated on the further implementation and possible actions they can do to optimize the use and benefits of the GlueUp platform for their company.