The City of Malmö (Sweden) was recently announced as the winner of the EU Cities for Fair and Ethical Trade Award 2021 at an award ceremony which took place online last week.

The award, which is now in its second edition, is an initiative of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade, and is implemented by the International Trade Centre.

"This award recognises that in today’s interconnected world, making more sustainable choices at the local level in the European Union will have positive ripple effects on people’s livelihoods and the environment," said ITC Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton. "My hope is that we can scale up these kinds of interventions all across the globe and other cities can learn from the excellent example set by Malmö."

Malmö won the award for its holistic approach to integrating fair and ethical trade into its multicultural community of consumers, businesses, and civil society, innovative policies and a forward-looking strategy.

As part of their prize, ITC will provide Malmö with technical assistance to implement a development project proposed as part of their winning bid. The European Commission’s Directorate General for Trade will support ITC with €100,000 to help implement the project.

During the award ceremony, ICLEI Members Bremen (Germany), and Gothenburg (Sweden) were awarded Special Mentions for their achievements and outstanding efforts concerning fair and ethical trade.

Bremen received a “Special Mention for Global Partnerships & Outlook” for numerous alliances and partnership initiatives on topics from reusable packaging and human rights diligence along supply chains to the cross-cutting Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) e-Budget initiative.

While Gothenburg received a “Special Mention for Public Procurement” based on their holistic approach to sustainable public procurement and innovative approaches.

In addition, special mentions went to Neumarkt, and Stuttgart (Germany), and Jelenia Góra (Poland).

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