Haarlem is the capital city of North Holland, one of the most densely populated provinces in the Netherlands. With over 160,000 inhabitants in a confined area, it is also one of the most densely populated cities in the country. The city has a historic city center and is close to the beach. It is a wonderful place to live, work and recreate in. At the same time, with so many people crowded within a restricted space, a smart approach is needed in order to manage all initiatives and plans into the right direction.
The city of Haarlem is managed by a board of four political parties since mid-2018. The coalition has drawn up a program called 'Performing sustainability. Action for a green, growing, social and livable Haarlem '. Haarlem intends to lay the foundation for a sustainable, social and future-proof city in the span of four years.
Sustainability is at the heart of this program. Haarlem is gradually working towards a circular economy and the city wants to set a good example by procuring goods, works and services that are sustainable, circular and inclusive.
This ambition fits seamlessly with the Urban Agenda. As a city, we are proud that we have joined forces with other cities and are at the forefront of this EU program, working for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth of urban areas in Europe.
As partner cities in Europe we put forward our shared knowledge and experience in procurement. With the view in mind that we achieve a leading position in building better and more livable European cities – performing sustainability, realizing sustainable goals.
Urban Agenda for the EU
The ‘Pact of Amsterdam’ of May 2016 has established the Urban Agenda for the EU: a working method of thematic Partnerships seeking to optimize the utilization of the growth potential of cities and to address social challenges. It aims to do so through better cooperation between cities, regions, Member States, the European Commission and other stakeholders. The Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement is one of the original 12 Partnerships, and was formally established in May 2017.
Background for the Partnership
Social, economic and ecological issues manifest themselves within urban areas, and should also be addressed by the cities themselves. Growing numbers of people live in cities and find jobs in urban areas. Therefore, cities play a vital part in providing citizens of EU Member States with good living conditions and in maintaining a healthy economy. The EU is indispensable in that EU-wide policy supports cities in their efforts to create the best possible environment for people.
The Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement creates the opportunity for cities and Member States to work closely together with European institutions to research and assess how to facilitate more use of innovative and responsible public procurement and thus support innovation and sustainability (social, economic and environmental).
Action plan of the Partnership
With the help of a number of European cities and organizations and representatives of the European Commission, the city of Haarlem has produced an action plan ‘Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement by Cities’. The action plan met with an overwhelming amount of very positive feedback reactions from all over Europe and was approved by the European Commission in November 2018.Thanks to everyone for the valuable feedback! The implementation of the action plan is in progress and will reach its conclusion by the beginning of 2020. The end results will be presented to the European Commission and disseminated throughout Europe.
Seven actions will be implemented
The action plan consists of the following seven actions.
1. Building strategy: This action aims to produce a guidance toolkit that can help politicians and technicians in cities (especially mid-sized and small-sized ones) to build their own Public Procurement strategy. This strategy allows for the implementation of the city’s goals in facing social, economic and environmental challenges. Current activities:
• Online survey, is launched early February 2019
• Drafting of the structure of the guidance toolkit
2. Circular Procurement: The goal of the action is to make knowledge on circular procurement easily available by providing conferences, workshops and training material that cities can use to build and develop competence for relevant staff. Current activities:
• Organization of trainings which will be delivered in the cities of the Partnership
3. Local Competence Centre: The aim of this action is to propose a flexible concept (building blocks that are adaptable to the local situation) for Local Competence Centres for innovative and sustainable procurement. Current activities:
• Online survey, is launched early February 2019
• Alignment of definitions and actions with Procure2Innovate (European network of National Competence Centres for innovation Procurement)
• Study visits to Local Competence Centres in Lublin (Poland), Larvik (Norway) and Torino (Italy)
• Set up of the assessment framework with the relevant conditions and considerations, relating to the potential models of local knowledge exchange and collaboration on innovative public procurement
4. Innovation brokerage: The action aims to facilitate the early engagement of solution providers (innovators) in order to satisfy public demand of innovation. Current activities:
• Research on tasks and performance indicators of the innovation brokers
5. Funding and future funding EU: The action entails the development of recommendations to the European Commission, the European Parliament and Member States on providing funding for procurement of innovation, strategic procurement and joint cross-border procurement. Current activities:
• Online survey, is launched early February 2019 and part of the input will be presented at the end of March during the Working Group meeting organized by EUROCITIES in Florence
6. Legal Handbook: The aim of developing a legal handbook on innovative public procurement is to provide a practical guideline regarding legal aspects for the procurement of innovation. Current activities:
• Research on legal issues of the procurement directive regarding the procurement of innovation
• Research on state aid law and IP law, relevant for the procurement of innovation
• Design of process diagrams and checklists
7. Measuring spend: The goal is to develop a common cross-Europe methodology for municipalities and other institutions to measure directly where their procurement spend goes and the impact it has (economically, socially and environmentally). Current activities:
• Research around spend analysis tools and wider impact assessment tools
• Drafting of the spend analysis tool
• Training on Measuring spend to members of the Partnership
Column ‘partner to speak’; 6 questions to URBACTS Matthew Baqueriza-Jackson
1. Can you tell us about URBACT?
URBACT is a European Regional Development Fund resourced Programme which focuses upon Integrated Urban Development. Through the creation of Networks across Mid-Sized Cities, URBACT seeks to transfer knowledge and learning around particular urban themes. My role as a so-called Lead Expert is to work with different cities and to facilitate such learning. At the moment, I am involved with an URBACT Transfer Network called Making Spend Matter, which is focused upon public procurement and transferring a methodology for measuring where procurement spend goes. The network is led by the City of Preston in the UK and involves six other European Cities.
2. Urbact is involved in the EU Urban Agenda Partnership for Responsible and Innovative Public Procurement. Can you indicate what this involvement entails?
Officially, URBACT is an observer of the Partnership for Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement. However, URBACT has a lot of knowledge and experience to share around the topic of public procurement; so the role is much more engaged in the delivery of the Action Plan. URBACT, through my representation, is involved in the Action around Measuring Spend and Wider Impact, which we are co-leading with Preston City Council and also the Action around Procurement Strategy. At the next meeting in Haarlem in May, URBACT and Preston City Council will be delivering training on how to Measure Spend.
3. Can you indicate why the renewal of the procurement policy is necessary?
Europe faces lots of challenges at the moment – these include: unemployment, low pay, migration, mitigating climate change, poor skills levels and many more. Procurement has historically been an under-recognized tool for cities in addressing these challenges. At URBACT, we think that cities should be using procurement as a lever to address such challenges and create more integrated urban strategies and improve local economies. The European Procurement Directives of 2014 are excellent – Member States and Cities, however need support to implement them and that is why the renewal of procurement policy is necessary.
4. Are there advantages to such an EU partnership, and what are they?
Yes, of course. The main benefit is that City partners involved in the Partnership work together to deliver better outcomes. The partners regularly share their practice and learn from each other. The Partnership also benefits from the involvement of the European Commission, European institutions such as EUROCITIES and European programme such as URBACT. This brings wider engagement in the Partnership and also enables influence over European level policy making.
5. Can you mention a concrete example of a successful IPP action?
There are lots of examples across the Partnership and other partners will be able to provide examples. Preston City Council, has however been very innovative in how it approaches the whole process of procurement. They recognize that there are many institutions within a place which spend lots of resource buying goods and services and that if Cities are going to deliver greater economic, social and environmental benefit through procurement then they have to operate in a cooperative way. Preston City Council are therefore working with a range of anchor institutions to deliver better procurement analysis, policy and practice.
6. What has to be the main focus of the partnership and when will it be judged as successful?
For URBACT, the effectiveness of the Partnership will be judged on the extent to which procurement becomes a key component of an Integrated Urban Development. Procurement has often been viewed as dull and technical – it may well be – but is has the potential to help cities address challenges and grow in economic, social and environmental terms.
Report of the two-day meeting in Haarlem on the 21st and 22nd of January 2019
Study Visit
The study visit for the action ‘Building Procurement Strategy’ was part of the Urban Agenda Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement meeting and was held on Monday morning 21st January 2019.
The study visit brought professionals together from the European cities, members of the Public Procurement Partnership of the Urban Agenda for the EU and local technicians, in order to exchange knowledge and findings on Dutch Public Procurement Strategies, especially on Circular Procurement. The study visit provided input into the Action of the UA Partnership on “Building procurement strategy and managing strategic procurement”. The participants were offered the chance to learn more about the Dutch best practices and to exchange ideas and concrete solutions to build an innovative and responsible Public Procurement Strategy at the local level: challenges and opportunities, circular procurement, evaluation and measurement of impact, internal management, collaboraton with market parties etc.
Circular procurement training
Joan Prummel and Mervyn Jones from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water management provided a workshop on Circular Procurement to the participants of the Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement. The workshop was a preview of the training that will be delivered to the procurement departments of the participating cities of the Partnership
Procurement plays a key role in the development and delivery of the circular economy. Procurers can stimulate the market to arrive at a circular supply chain by specifically asking for circular solutions. Circular procurement seeks ways and facilitates steps to close cycles in supply chains and product categories. Cooperation with, and learning from, market parties is an important element during the process. In addition to the direct benefits for practitioners, every circular tender provides an example for others to build on, use to enrich their knowledge and improve performance through learning.
Joan Prummel and Mervyn Jones provided the Circular Procurement training.
Visit of the mayors of Haarlem and Prague
The Mayor of the district 7 of the city of Prague Lenka Burgerová joined the meeting of the Urban Agenda Partnership on Monday 21st of January. The city of Prague would like to collaborate with the Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative Public Procurement. The innovative and responsible public procurement is a strategic tool to solve different challenges cities in Europe are dealing with. The collaboration includes the exchange of experience and knowledge on procurement and also access to try out the products/outcomes of the actions of the Urban Agenda Partnership.
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