Race of the beech trees: one week before the end of voting, the Polish Heart of the Garden beech takes over The Weeping Beech of Bayeux to lead in the European Tree of the Year 2024!

One week has passed since the last announcement of the current standing in the ETY 2024. The contest now sees The Heart of the Garden in the lead followed by The Weeping Beech of Bayeux and The Thousand-year-old Olive Tree of Luras one week before the end of the vote. Europeans can still vote in the final week until February 22nd, 4:00 PM CET, at www.treeoftheyear.org. 

As the vote in ETY 2024 is moving into its final week, we see a shuffle at the top of the table. The Weeping Beech of Bayeux from France with 13,753 votes has swapped places with the Polish Heart of the Garden which is currently leading the peloton with 21,808 votes. The Thousand-year-old Olive Tree of Luras from Italy with 8,812 is currently third. The change of positions correlates with the intensification of the online campaign in support of the finalist trees. The complete table of the current standing can be found at the bottom of this press release. 

One of the key themes of ETY is the relationship local communities have with their natural environment. This year, the contest is supported by the Czech Ministry of the Environment, which traditionally plays a positive role supporting this relationship. "The Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic has long been trying to strengthen the relationship between local communities and their natural treasures, whether through subsidies for, among other things, planting community green spaces, restoring and creating landscape features, and our recent research project on community gardens in cities to determine their potential in times of crisis such as the COVID pandemic. The importance of community gardens, which offer a space for relaxation, a green island in times of heat, a haven for urban biodiversity and food sovereignty, will grow in the future, and we therefore want to support them,” explains Petr Hladík, Czech Minister for the Environment.

Preparations for the award ceremony on March 20th in the European Parliament, PAUL - HENRI SPAAK building, Floor 1, YEHUDI MENUHIN amphitheatre are advancing. “Alongside the voting, we are busy with preparing the Award Ceremony. I am responsible for liaising between the organisers of the event and EU institutions and I can now confidently say that this year will enjoy a particularly high level of recognition from the ranks of the EU's policy makers. More details on this will come with the “save-the-date” followed by an official invitation to the event which we will send out at the end of February,” hints Adam Holub, the Brussels representative of the Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation. 

Key dates:
1. – 22. 2. 2024: Secret voting open at www.treeoftheyear.org/vote
20. 3. 2024: Award Ceremony at the European Parliament, PAUL-HENRI SPAAK building, Floor 1, YEHUDI MENUHIN amphitheatre