The European Commission, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as well as the Open Contracting Partnership are actually joining forces to improve the quality as well as transparency of public tenders co funded by EU funds in Poland and Greece. Because of their support, two pilot projects are going to provide expertise as well as hands-on assistance to public authorities in each of those places, with a concentration on digital innovation.
By marketing the bright usage of open data and innovation, the two pilots will help public administrations to better plan, implement as well as keep track of the procurement of works, goods and services. This will better the usage of public energy as well as increase opportunities for businesses, particularly for little and medium companies (SMEs). Additionally, thanks to a cooperation with local civil society organisations, this particular initiative will also favour transparency of public investing as well as stimulate citizens’ participation in the monitoring of investments with a direct effect on the town, like investments in sustainability, social inclusion and local progress.
The two pilot projects
In Greece, the project is going to aim at consolidating as well as integrating all databases to an individual smart public contract register. This will enable online access for citizens and bidders, improve quality of information and facilitate the use of data-driven analytical resources for checking the procurement process.
In Poland, the first step will help support Polish national and local authorities to add open data in public procurement and increase automated collection, standardisation, and consolidation of procurement details on all the tenders.
The 2 pilots will run until the end of 2021 and their results will be disseminated with the purpose to ensure a profitable roll out in other Member States.
Commissioner for Reforms and Cohesion, 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 following the coronavirus pandemic, along with boosting competitiveness through brand new investments in innovation and study, digital transition and also the implementation of the European Green Deal agenda. Through the usage of brand new technologies, national and local public authorities managing EU money will be able to invest public money better ensuring the absolute best results for citizens and businesses”.
Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, added: “Transparency inside public procurement is vital to ensure effectiveness of public investments, in series with the EU strategic policy targets aiming at a better, digital and more resilient Europe. Public authorities can rely on the EU’s public procurement framework, tools like the electric procurement systems and open info for a reliable use of public funds.”
The EBRD Vice-President, Pierre Heilbronn commented: “The EBRD is actually committed to help institutional and legal reforms aimed at seeing to it that procurement laws as well as strategies are actually modern, consistent with international criteria and can swiftly react to emerging challenges. Together with Open Contracting Partnership, we are sharing the experience of successful civil society procurement monitoring used on open data. The joint work of ours aim to create a framework for enlisting civil planet organisations to allow for public procurement reforms and make use of open details to monitor procurement.”
Background
In the context of the next long-range EU budget, more than €370 billion out of Cohesion policy money will be invested to support the digital and green transitions on the Member States. Yearly, public authorities inside the EU spend about fourteen % of GDP on public procurement, amounting to more than €1.9 trillion. Almost one half of Cohesion policy funding is actually channelled through public procurement. The Commission has promoted a series of initiatives aimed at helping Member States to improve the way administrations & beneficiaries use public procurement for EU investments. These include the Integrity Pacts to make sure transparent and efficient more tenders and safeguarding EU taxpayers’ money. The Commission additionally had taken action to facilitate citizen engagement for better governance and powerful Cohesion policy investments.
