Pedro Telles, Grith Skovgaard Ølykke

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 239 - 252

This article analyses the conceptual link between law and compliance, exploring the different theories and types of compliance (corporate, State and regulatory) and how they can be found today within the EU legal public procurement framework. The analytical focus is on Directive 2014/24/EU and within it how sustainable requirements have increased the level of compliance required, particularly regulatory compliance. Compliance was already present in previous EU public procurement frameworks, but its extent on Directive 2014/24/EU leads the authors to consider the current legal framework as subject to substantial regulatory compliance obligations external to the process of procurement. In short, procurement has been transformed in a way to enforce regulatory obligations that are not intrinsic to the process of buying. This leads to the conclusion that questions such as the cost and trade offs from imposing compliance obligations to public and private bodies warrant further research, particularly at the legal, economic and political science intersection.

Beatriz Martinez Romera, Roberto Caranta

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 281 - 292

Climate change is an urgent matter, which calls for considering the potential, opportunities and challenges of public procurement for combating it. This article analyses the role that public purchasing plays in achieving and enhancing climate change mitigation in the EU, and delves into the specific climate and procurement legal framework after the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 2014 Procurement Directive. The EU rules are analysed to understand the evolution of environmental concerns, specifically climate change, in EU public procurement law over the last twenty years. The article shows how climate change may be accommodated in the light of these two developments, most crucially, under the 2014 procurement reform, which has happened against a backdrop of ongoing tensions between concerns for the proper functioning of the internal market and calls stressing the imperatives of sustainability.

Ama Eyo

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 253 - 265

This paper examines the relationship between corruption and Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) in Africa. Specifically, the paper makes two contributions to the literature. First, it argues that at a macro level, systemic corruption in African countries depletes the already small pool of funds available for public spending, which limits these countries’ ability to pursue SPP outcomes, thus negatively impacting sustainable development. Second, the article draws attention to the need for more specific anti-corruption controls at the micro or institutional levels to address the practice of subverting SPP objectives by corrupt public officials by offering a number of micro-level anti-corruption measures to address the challenge posed by corruption to procurement, including to SPP.

European Commission

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 219 - 223

Reform of the EU rules on Public Procurement (PP) of 2014, inter alia, brought about numerous changes, additions and updates of previous rules in order to increase flexibility in terms of procedural issues. However, perhaps more importantly, especially as regards long-term perspectives, it also introduced a more flexible notion of Public Procurement which is intended to promote public procurement as a policy instrument. A major part of this new policy approach pertains to so-called ‘strategic public procurement’ comprising green, social and innovative public procurement. Such a policy approach is seen as a way to achieve targets of Europe’s 2020 Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. This article seeks to illustrate the Commission’s approach to strategic public procurement by indicating the existence of opportunities and tools available at EU level, as well as the scope and objectives of the Commission’s policy. It aims to give an overview of strategic public procurement in the context of the new legal framework, to explain the shift toward strategic procurement and finally to give an indication of the further steps the Commission intends to take.

Abby Semple

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 293 - 309

The 2014 EU Procurement Directives contain an expanded set of provisions relating to socially responsible public procurement (SRPP). From the application of higher thresholds and ability to limit competition for certain contracts through the use of social award criteria and contract performance clauses, there are numerous possibilities for contracting authorities to take considerations related to labour law compliance, trading conditions and social inclusion into account. At the same time, the EU has expanded its international commitments in the field of public procurement through the revision of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, and through the establishment of Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTAs) with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. This paper looks at the extent to which SRPP provisions have been incorporated in these agreements, finding that in a number of areas they offer a less supportive framework than the EU Directives for SRPP.

Aikaterini Argyrou

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 310 - 324

This article discusses the issue of social enterprises gaining access to public procurement processes and contracts at the EU and national level. It primarily examines the opportunities for social enterprises to access public procurement contracts provided for in the Public Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU (Public Procurement Directive). It also investigates measures introduced by the Greek government to provide social enterprises with access to public service contracts at a national level through tailor-made law, namely the Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship Law of 2011 and its amendment in 2016 (Social Entrepreneurship Law of 2011 and amendments).

Marta Andrecka

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 333 - 345

The new EU Procurement Directives reinforced the importance of sustainable development by facilitating the strategic use of public procurement to achieve broader societal goals and as such offer significant new opportunities for sustainable public procurement. The task of today is to better understand the continuously developing concepts of SPP, as well as to identify the drivers and barriers that promote or hinder its further implementation. This article firstly deals with the relationship between the concepts of sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and public procurement. Secondly, as Denmark has been known as a pioneer in sustainable development, including implementation of it in public purchasing this article focuses on recent developments in the areas of CSR and sustainable public procurement in Denmark, and analyses relevant Danish Public Procurement Complaints Board decisions.

Dagmar Sigurðardóttir

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 358 - 364

Karolina Lehto

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 346 - 351

Åsa Edman, Peter Nohrstedt

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 352 - 357