Public procurement

EBSA welcomes the Commissions Public Procurement Package from October 2017.

Especially it is important for EBSA’s members that public authorities takes a more strategic approach to procurement instead of only focusing on price. The Directives from 2014 gives flexibilities to public authorities to use the price-quality ratio instead of price alone as their decisive criteria. However, price is still by far the most commonly used criteria and member state authorities lacks clarity on how to use other criteria. EBSA hence calls for practical guidance on how to use the opportunities provided in the directives. Several of EBSA’s members have already developed guides for selecting best quality in their sectors. These guides should serve as inspiration for the general guidelines and can be consulted here:

CoESS: http://www.securebestvalue.org

EFCI: http://www.cleaningbestvalue.eu/english.html

FoodServiceEurope: http://www.contract-catering-guide.org/

Please find EBSA’s Consultation response on Social Public Procurement Guide and on SME participation in Public Procurement Consultation response on SME PP here.

EBSA is engaged in sharing best practices with regards to social public procurement in the EU and wish to see the practices reflected in the Commissions guide for social public procurement. Please see our collection of Buying Social best practices.