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The European Commission seeks four experts to join the European Green Capital and European Green Leaf Expert Panel

Would you like to be part of the European Green Capital and European Green Leaf Awards?

The European Commission is seeking four experts to join the European Green Capital Award (EGCA) and European Green Leaf Award (EGLA) Expert Panel. Experts are required in the following four environmental indicator areas:

• Green growth and eco-innovation
• Sustainable land use
• Waste management
• Sustainable urban mobility

The Awards

The title European Green Capital is awarded every year to a European city for its commitment to environmental, social and economic sustainability. The European Green Leaf Award recognises and promotes the efforts of towns and cities with populations of 20,000 and up to 100,000 towards better environmental management and outcomes.

Role of the Expert Panel

The Expert Panel, made up of 12 environmental experts, plays an integral role in the awards process. Both the EGCA and EGLA competitions involve a two-step evaluation process. When cities apply for the award and are deemed eligible each application is reviewed and assessed by the Expert Panel.

EGCA applicants are assessed based on 12 environmental indicators, with each expert evaluating one indicator. EGLA applications are evaluated based on six environmental topic areas, with two experts per topic. This evaluation determines which cities get shortlisted to go the next stage of the competition.

Duties and responsibilities

The primary role of the expert is to assess applicant cities on their performance in an environmental indicator area. This usually takes place from November to March. As part of the evaluation, experts prepare technical comments to go into the Technical Assessment Reports. Feedback from the experts is not only pivotal part of the competition process; it also provides cities with valuable advice and guidance on how they can improve their approach in each environmental indicator and topic area.

Other duties and responsibilities of the Expert Panel include:

• Responding to queries from applicant cities via the Secretariat;
• Peer review of a secondary indicator area;
• Preparation of technical comments for reporting purposes;
• Attendance at three evaluation meetings;
• Review of application form indicator text;
• Review of the guidance note on indicator area.

Experts must have:

• Proven and relevant competence and experience, including at European and / or international level, in the field of working with EU environment policy / sustainable urban development with strong focus on the particular environmental indicator;
• Absence of circumstances that could give rise to a conflict of interest;
• Good knowledge of the English language allowing active participation in the discussions;
• Be a national from a country covered by the European Green Capital and Green Leaf Awards1;
• Selected Experts will be expected to perform evaluations and associated tasks for each competitive cycle and to attend three meetings per year.

How to Apply

For more details about the role or how to apply, visit the Expert Panel page. Duly signed applications must be sent by 30 August 2019 at the latest. The date of sending will be established as follows:

• Where applications are sent by e-mail to the following e-mail address: ENV-EGCA-EGL@ec.europa.eu, the date of the e-mail will be the date of sending.
• Where applications are sent by post to the following address: European Commission, DG Environment, Unit A3 secretariat – BU-5 4/103, B-1049 Brussels, the postmark will be considered the date of sending.

The awards are open to cities from EU Member States, EU Candidate Countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

More information is available on the European Commission website.