International online meeting of the Peer2Peer community

On 10 July, an on-line meeting of the Public Procurement group (as part of the work of Peer2Peer Communities of DG REGIO) was held with the participation of CEUTP experts and about 30 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. the leaders of the group, who present issues selected by themselves and the participants, thereby setting the tone for the group’s work.

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

• representative of the 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.

Ms. Justyne Balasińska (DG REGIO) was the first to speak, informing about the OECD project on sustainable public procurement. In this regard, another meeting of people interested in the OECD project is planned (September 2024). Then, special guest Daniel Morris (Danish Institute of Human Rights) presented the idea of ​​socially responsible public procurement, including legal aspects of the issue under EU directives regarding public procurement.

The last part of the meeting was a presentation by a representative of CEUPT, 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 makes it possible to put the idea into practice. The practical dimension referred to the manuals, 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.