Marco Ceruti

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 13 (2018), Ausgabe 3, Seite 234 - 240

Andrea Castelli

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 13 (2018), Ausgabe 3, Seite 207 - 213

In the last decade, the Smart Cities debate has been characterized by a continuous and significant development, giving rise to a wide range of definitions with the purpose of identifying the exact perimeter of the phenomenon. This included determining the processes needed to transform an urban agglomeration into a ‘smart’ city through the development of new technologies and innovation with a social purpose. With the intent of pursuing those targets and creating a model of organization designed to evaluate problems linked to the environmental protection and commercial evolution (and, as a result, to increase the quality of life of people that live in it), the EU introduced a new plan of development (the Europe 2020 program) encouraging public administrations to extend the use of instruments that were already part of the European Union legal system (like the Pre-commercial Procurement, a kind of public-private partnership) and to test new ones, like innovation partnership, introduced by Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement. This paper aims at analysing the impact of innovation partnership in the European countries, with particular reference to Italy, considering also a comparative perspective between different approaches on the evolution and development of Smart Cities. Keywords: Public procurement; Europe 2020 Strategy; Directive 2014/24/EU; Innovation partnership; Smart Cities

Zbigniew Raczkiewicz

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 13 (2018), Ausgabe 3, Seite 229 - 233

Branimir Blagojevic

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 13 (2018), Ausgabe 3, Seite 245 - 251

Albert Sánchez-Graells

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 12 (2017), Ausgabe 2, Seite 97 - 111

This paper provides a critical assessment of the “Feasibility study concerning the actual implementation of a joint cross-border procurement procedure by public buyers from different Member States” prepared by Bundesbeschaffung GmbH and Statens og Kommunernes Indkøbs Service A/S (BBG-SKI) for the European Commission. The paper submits that the study provides some interesting data and details about relevant case studies, but that it does not shed significant light on the doubts created by the rules on joint cross-border public procurement (JCBPP) in the 2014 EU Public Procurement Package, and that the main weakness of the study is its lack of a general legal analytical framework. In order to gain additional legal insights on the basis of the empirical data included in the BBG-SKI study, this paper proposes an analytical framework under which the legal compliance of JCBPP structures is assessed. It then summarises each of the case studies included in the BBG-SKI study and offers a critical (re)assessment of the issues that would have required more information and/or which are insufficiently analysed in the BBG-SKI study. Based on this reorganised empirical evidence, the paper proceeds to a critical assessment of some of the outstanding legal barriers and challenges to JCBPP. It concludes by stressing some of the remaining uncertainties concerning legal development at Member State level, and calls on the European Commission to facilitate more detailed research leading to the adoption of future guidance on JCBPP under the 2014 EU Public Procurement Directives. Keywords: Joint Procurement; Collaborative Procurement; Centralised Purchasing Bodies; Joint Entities; Legal Framework; Choice of Law; Conflict of Laws.

Dacian C. Dragoş, Alexandra Horváthová

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 12 (2017), Ausgabe 3, Seite 266 - 280

Public procurement is the process by which governments as well as other bodies governed by public law purchase products, services and public works. The European Union has adopted legal tools to introduce a certain standard of procedures across its Member States. Nevertheless, there are challenges that remain to be addressed. This article focuses on one area directly connected to both transparency and integrity – conflict of interests. The article first analyses the concept of conflict of interests and how the EU has approached solving conflicts of interests within public procurement. The second part of the article looks into the specifics of two countries that continue to have challenges in addressing conflicts of interests – Romania and Slovakia.

Abby Semple

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 12 (2017), Ausgabe 3, Seite 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.

Pedro Telles, Grith Skovgaard Ølykke

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 12 (2017), Ausgabe 3, Seite 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, Jahrgang 12 (2017), Ausgabe 3, Seite 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, Jahrgang 12 (2017), Ausgabe 3, Seite 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.