International online meeting of the Peer2Peer community

On Wednesday, July 10, an online meeting of the Public Procurement group (as part of the work of DG REGIO’s Peer2Peer Communities) was held with the participation of CUPT experts and some 30 representatives of institutions from other EU member states involved in the management and control process for EU projects. As of May 2024, the role of coordinator of this initiative is held by PwC.

The meeting began with the introduction of key participants, including representatives of DG REGIO, PwC and Community Champions, the group’s leaders, who present issues of their choice and those of the participants, setting the tone for the group’s work.

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

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

Ms. Justyne Balasinska (DG REGIO) spoke first, informing about the OECD project on sustainable public procurement. In this regard, another meeting of those interested in the OECD project is planned (September 2024). Then, special guest Daniel Morris (Danish Institute for Human Rights) presented the idea of socially responsible public procurement, including the legal aspects of the issue on the basis of EU directives on public procurement.

The last part of the meeting was a presentation by a representative of CEUTP, who discussed the issue of socially responsible public procurement, both in the legal dimension (specific provisions from EU directives, Polish law and Spanish law on the grounds of public procurement), which enables the idea to be put into practice, and in the practical dimension. The practical dimension referred to the guides, guides and recommendations that have been created on the basis of the regulations of the aforementioned member states, and provide valuable guidance as to what specific social clauses or bid evaluation criteria we can apply, keeping in mind social objectives in public procurement.

The meeting ended with an online survey which gave participants the opportunity to indicate what topics they would like to address at future Peer 2 Peer network meetings. They were also able to refer to issues raised at past network meetings from 2022 onward. This event proved once again that Peer2Peer provides an interactive, needed and rapidly growing platform for the exchange of knowledge and experience between public administration employees in the EU. Peer2Peer Public Procurement Group plans to hold another online meeting this fall.