The management and control process within EU projects – another meeting of the Peer2Peer community is behind us

On May 21, 2025, an online meeting of the “Public Procurement” community (as part of DG REGIO’s Peer2Peer Communities) was held, with the participation of a CUPT expert and approximately 20 representatives of institutions from other EU Member States involved in the management and control process of EU projects.

The meeting began with an introduction of key participants, including representatives of DG REGIO, PwC, and the Community Champions, the group’s leaders who present topics selected by themselves and the participants, setting the tone for the group’s work.

The Community Champions in the group are:

• Przemysław Ostrowski, representative of CUPT (Control and Audit Department);
• Kristina Vasileva, representative of the Public Procurement Agency from Bulgaria (Directorate for Legislation and Methodology);
• Yasen Markov, representative of the Audit Institution from Bulgaria;
• Antonija Ćurić, representative of the Audit Institution from Croatia.

The first part of the meeting consisted of a presentation by Przemysław Ostrowski, representative of the CUPT, who addressed the recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding public procurement (C-513/23 Obshtina Pleven and C-683/22 Adusbef – Associazione difesa utenti servizi bancari e finanziari). Additionally, he presented the case law of Polish courts (judgment of the District Court in Warsaw of 13 June 2024, file reference XXIII Zs 58/24), Italian courts (Il Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale per l’ Umbria TAR Perugia, 09 May 2025 n. 487) and Spanish courts (Tribunal Supremo (Madrid), 24 April 2025, STS 1784/2025 – ECLI:ES:TS:2025:1784) in the field of public procurement.

In the next part of the meeting, Antonija Ćurić, a representative of the Croatian Audit Authority, discussed the most important aspects of the report summarizing the public consultation on the evaluation of the procurement directives.

The final part of the meeting consisted of a presentation by Antonija Ćurić, a representative of the Croatian Audit Authority, and Przemysław Ostrowski, a representative of the CUPT, on the topic of conflict of interest. The focus was on the practical aspects of the issue, namely how to define and detect this conflict, and on a group discussion of what improvements at national and EU level would support auditors’ work in this area.

This event once again demonstrated that Peer2Peer is an interactive, necessary, and dynamically developing platform for the exchange of knowledge and experience among public administration employees in the EU. At the same time, the meeting was attended by new members of the group who had not previously participated in its work, further confirming its development potential.

The group’s meetings will continue, particularly given the complexity and breadth of the conflict of interest issue and the importance of exchanging information on public procurement case law to stay current and enhance knowledge and expertise.

Since May 2024, PwC has been coordinating this initiative.