About public procurement at the next Peer2Peer community meeting

On Wednesday, February 19, an international online meeting of the Public Procurement group was held (as part of the work of Peer2Peer Communities DG REGIO) with the participation of a CEUTP expert and approximately 20 representatives of institutions from other EU Member States involved in the management and control process within EU projects. Since May 2024, PwC has been the coordinator of this initiative.

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

The role of Community Champions in the group is played by:

• representative of CEUTP (Control and Audit Department) – Przemysław Ostrowski;
• representative of the Public Procurement Agency from Bulgaria (Directorate for Legislation and Methodology) – Kristina Vasileva;
• representative of the Audit Authority from Bulgaria – Yasen Markov.

The first part of the meeting was a presentation by the representative of CEUTP, Mr. Przemysław Ostrowski, who touched on the topic of the recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the field of public procurement (C-652/22 Kolin Inşaat Turizm Sanayi te Ticaret AȘ and C-266/22 Astra Vagoane Călători SA), as well as how the indicated case law has already influenced the national (Polish) doctrine (discussion of the most important conclusions from the two announcements of the President of the Public Procurement Office) and case law (judgment of the National Appeals Chamber of January 17, 2025, ref. no.: KIO 4763/24). Additionally, he also referred to the case law of Italian courts (T.A.R. Lazio, II-Bis, 26 novembre 2024, n. 21202 and TAR Piemonte, n. 1110/2021) on the subject of relying on the capacities of other entities from the so-called “third countries”.

The next part of the meeting was a presentation by the representative of the Audit Authority from Bulgaria, Mr. Yasen Markov, regarding the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in case C-424/23 Dyka Plastics. The judgment concerns the correct way of preparing the description of the subject of the contract, i.e. in what cases it is possible to indicate what materials the products proposed by tenderers should be made of and the issue of providing an alternative solution based on a different technical solution. Mr. Yasen Markov also pointed out how the above judgment affects the need to include a financial corrections schedule in this topic.

The last part of the meeting was a presentation on the possibility of getting involved in a pilot project of the European Commission (DG Regional and Urban Policy) regarding support in the area of ​​SPP (Strategic Public Procurement). Mrs. Justyne Balasinska (from the European Commission – DG Regio) defined the basic assumptions of the project, i.e.:

– support applies to programs co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the Just Transition Fund;

– managing/intermediate institutions will have the opportunity to work together with experts from the OECD.

This event once again proved that Peer2Peer is an interactive, necessary and dynamically developing platform for the exchange of knowledge and experience between public administration employees in the EU.  In particular, the latest case law of the CJEU and at the national level (Poland, Italy) regarding the rights of economic operators from the so-called “third parties” (those who are not EU members or not bound by international agreements with the EU) and financial corrections, sparking lively discussions, confirmed the need to continue group meetings.

At the same time, the meeting was attended by new members of the group who had not participated in its work before, which also confirms its development potential.