Steven Van Garsse, Kit Van Gestel, Nicolas Carette

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 2, Page 87 - 96

In recent years, various energy-saving initiatives have been adopted at the EU level, with the goal of mitigating climate change and reducing the European Union’s dependence on external sources of energy. The Energy Efficiency Directive of 25 October 2012 is explicitly targeted at increasing the use of this tool by governments in order to achieve better energy performance. Improvements in energy performance (e.g. for buildings) often require substantial investments on the part of the government. To date, however, the manner in which this type of contracts should be treated within the budget and in light of the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), as currently interpreted, is not very attractive. For the time being, therefore, the future of the use of EPC by governments appears less than promising. This article elaborates on the budgetary obstacles for a broad use of EPC for public buildings within the EU. Keywords: Energy Performance Contracts; Energy Efficiency Directive; Eurostat; European System of Accounts.

Steven Van Garsse, Kit Van Gestel, Kirsti McKenzie

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 1, Page 3 - 15

This article presents an overview of Public-Private Partnership contracts, focusing on the balance sheet treatment of these contracts, particularly in light of the recently published Eurostat and EPEC guidance on the Statistical Treatment of PPPs. The aim of this additional guidance is to translate the statistical rules into contract provisions and we analyse this in relation to the transfer of risks and rewards, whilst considering the extent of government funding and control. Keywords: PPP; ESA 2010; MGDD; Transfer of Risk; Transfer of Rewards; Government Expenditure; Statistical Treatment.