AER participated on 5 July to a lunch time briefing aimed at presenting good practices and recommendations as regards the public procurement systems in EU Member States. The Committee of the Regions hosted this meeting with a view to enhancing investments at local and regional level. It also aimed at raising awareness of the pivotal role of administrative capacity in the EU’s efforts to enhance investment in all EU regions.
Speakers from European Commission’s DG REGIO (Regional and Urban Policy) and the Committee of the Regions shared a series of good practices and recommendations as regards the public procurement systems in EU Member States. The European Commission presented the current status of its Action Plan on Public Procurement, which objective is to enhance investments at local and regional level.
Plenty of resources available for regions
Building up the administrative capacity of the European regions is crucial for the EU, since it will contribute to reduce errors and irregularities in Public Procurement and to achieve the objectives of the Action Plan. For that reason, the EU institutions have prepared a Guidance for Public Procurement Practitioners (available in 23 languages), to help public officials involved in the management of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) to avoid frequent errors and adopt best practices.
The briefing was also the opportunity to present the results of Public Procurement – a study on administrative capacity in the EU. It looks at the systems and structures in the individual Member States, and provides valuable information as to how to improve the quality of public procurement in each MS, and ensure more efficiency, transparency and regularity.
The third source of information which can be relevant for our members is the study on EGTCs investing. The European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation are long stable structures that can help the regions to cope with the challenges of managing the different cross-border funding instruments of the ESIF.
You can find more information and the presentations on the link to the event page on the site of Committee of Regions, includes as well the videos of the briefing.
