The European Commission, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as well as the Open Contracting Partnership are actually joining forces to boost the quality as well as transparency of public tenders co funded by EU funds in Greece and Poland. Thanks to their support, two pilot projects will provide expertise as well as hands on support to public authorities in the two places, with a concentration on digital innovation.
By marketing the intelligent use of open information and development, the two pilots should help public administrations to better plan, apply as well as keep an eye on the procurement of succeeds, services and goods. It will improve the usage of public energy as well as improve opportunities for companies, particularly for tiny and medium companies (SMEs). Moreover, because of a cooperation with neighborhood civil society organisations, this initiative will in addition favour transparency of public spending and also stimulate citizens’ participation within the monitoring of investments with an immediate influence on the town, such as investments in sustainability, local development and social inclusion.
The two pilot projects
In Greece, the project is going to aim at consolidating and integrating all databases to a specific smart public contract register. This will enable online access for citizens and bidders, enhance quality of data and facilitate the use of data-driven analytical resources for checking the procurement process.
In Poland, the first step will support Polish national and local authorities to bring in open data in public procurement and promote automated collection, standardisation, and consolidation of procurement details on every tenders.
The two pilots are going to run until the tail end of 2021 and their results will be disseminated in order to ensure a booming roll out in other Member States.
Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said: “In the programming phase 2021 2027, Cohesion policy will continue to help Member States as well as regions in their economic recovery after coronavirus pandemic, along with boosting competitiveness through new investments in study and innovation, the implementation and digital transition of the European Green Deal agenda. Through the usage of brand new technologies, national and local public authorities handling EU funds will be able to invest public money more effectively ensuring the best possible outcomes for businesses” and citizens.
Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, added: “Transparency in public procurement is crucial to ensure performance of public investments, in line while using the EU strategic policy goals aiming at a better, digital and more resilient Europe. Public authorities can depend on the EU’s public procurement framework, tools like the electronic procurement devices and open info for a reliable use of public funds.”
The EBRD Vice-President, Pierre Heilbronn commented: “The EBRD is actually sold on help legal and institutional reforms aimed at seeing to it that procurement laws as well as strategies are contemporary, in line with international criteria as well as can swiftly respond to emerging challenges. Together with Open Contracting Partnership, we are sharing the experience of productive civil society procurement monitoring based on open data. Our joint efforts wish to generate a framework for enlisting civil society organisations to support public procurement reforms and make use of open data to watch procurement.”
Background
In the context of the next long-term EU budget, much more compared to €370 billion coming from Cohesion policy funds will be invested to help the green and digital transitions on the Member States. Annually, public authorities inside the EU spend around 14 % of GDP on public procurement, amounting to much more than €1.9 trillion. Virtually one half of Cohesion policy funding is channelled via public procurement. The Commission has promoted a series of initiatives targeted at helping Member States to enhance the way administrations and beneficiaries work with public procurement for EU investments. These include the Integrity Pacts to make sure more efficient and transparent tenders and safeguarding EU taxpayers’ money. The Commission likewise had taken action to facilitate citizen engagement for much better governance and powerful Cohesion policy investments.
