Joint development by the EU member states
In June 2018, Hansel arranged a CPB Network event for European joint procurement bodies The two-day event proved that the concerns and interests of the EU member states are fairly similar. The agenda included strategic management, digitisation of procurement, open data and customer-centred approach.
Public procurement in Europe is more and more professional, and transparency of the operations is emphasised. Hansel presented its groundbreaking Tutkihankintoja.fi service to the participants. Promotion of competition is one of the high priorities specified by the European Commission. Improvement of the opportunity of small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in procurement was discussed at length at the seminar in Helsinki.
“The Commission wishes that joint procurement bodies would cooperate to increase the quality of public procurement in Europe. Training for procurement experts is needed throughout the whole of Europe, and good practices need to be shared,” encouraged Marzena Rogalska, Head of Unit at the European Commission.
Timo Rantanen, a development manager at Hansel, talked about the establishment of the Finnish Competence Centre for Sustainable and Innovative Public Procurement (KEINO) and the ways in which innovation and green values are promoted in public procurement in Finland. Measuring the effectiveness of procurement is an interesting issue for all the EU member states.
Joint procurement bodies were interested in the Remedies Directive
A European comparison on the duration of legal proceedings has been made, and Finland was unfortunately not among the top member states. Stakeholders are of the opinion that the Remedies Directive will improve openness, transparency and availability. The Directive has been justified by increased efficiency.
The joint procurement bodies have submitted a report to the Commission which emphasises special characteristics of joint procurement in relation to the Directive and describes challenges that the joint procurement bodies have encountered due to regulation. The joint procurement bodies are of the opinion that the goals of the Directive are good, but the best means of reaching them would be by reducing the processing times and sharing best legal practices between the member states.
The joint procurement bodies proposed reducing processing times by setting time limits for decisions and reducing the volume of documentation, limiting the stages in legal proceedings or mitigating the impact on joint procurement contracts. The report included detailed descriptions of the disadvantages caused by long processing times to joint procurement.
The CPB meeting culminated in a workshop on dynamic purchasing systems, where the exchange of experiences was lively and the participants received tips on how to resolve some challenging situations.