NEWSLETTER NO 7, JAnuary 2022
This EU Urban Agenda Public Procurement Newsletter contains information about the progress of the Partnerships work and contributions of our partners.
We are wishing you all a good, safe and healthy 2022!
INDEX
- Looking back on 2021 and looking forward to 2022: an overview by Valentina Schippers-Opejko
- Action plan 2018: Implemented and completed!
- Action Plan 2022: The Partnership continues!
- INTERVIEW with Adam Sawicki, City of Koszalin, new EU UA Public Procurement partner
- Introducing a new member: The Barcelona Provincial Council
- BEST PRACTICES from our partners: The Czech Ministry of Agriculture
- Innovation City Award 2021- winner: The City of Vantaa; semi-finalist: City of Haarlem
- URBACT’s online course now available in 7 languages
- Public Procurement Event in Nice, France, on the 28th of February 2022
- Link to the FUTURIUM Public Procurement WEBSITE
- General information
Year 2021, for many of us felt like another year of pandemic, working from home again, lockdowns and many online meetings. But it was also a year of increasing the role of Public Procurement. More and more cities and other public authorities are using public procurement as a strategic tool. By using it as a strategic tool, public procurement can help to:
- recover the economy after the pandemic,
- create new jobs for people who became unemployed due to the COVID19 crisis,
- achieve EU Green Deal goals and
- push forward innovative and creative solutions for the existing challenges.
We are proud of what we achieved this year:
The E-learning module with 7 actions we developed was used more than 1300 (!) times by cities, regions, member states and other European public authorities: Urban Agenda - Public Procurement (maester.com).
The online video modules of the Strategic Procurement Course, produced by URBACT in collaboration with the Urban Agenda Partnership and Making Spend Matter initiative, were very well used (Introduction has been seen 1450 (!) times): https://urbact.eu/procurement
We promoted deliverables of the Urban Agenda Partnership during webinars, online sessions and online conferences.
We presented our deliverables at the online session ‘Delivering EU Green Deal through Circular Procurement’ and the online session ‘Public procurers meet the market – market engagement strategies and the example of AI’ during the European Week of Cities and Regions 2021.
Brainstorm sessions and meetings about the future actions.
We are happy to have our new partners on board: City of Koszalin (Poland) and the Barcelona Provincial Council (Spain).
Successful exchanges with the Urban Agenda Partnerships on Circular Economy, Climate Adaptation, Urban Mobility and new cross-cutting action on Monitoring framework for the period 2022-2023.
We worked on the new Action Plan with focus on using public procurement as a strategic tool for the period 2022-2024.
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Action plan 2018: Implemented and completed!
The last couple of years, the partnership has worked on seven different actions:
- Building a procurement strategy;
- Circular procurement;
- Knowledge exchange;
- Innovation broker;
- Future funds;
- Legal toolbox;
- Measuring the impact of spend
action plan 2022: the partnership continues!
3 new actions have been developed, aimed at further knowledge exchange and how to use public procurement as a tool for economic recovery after COVID-19. The 3 actions are visualised in the image below.
action 1
To develop a reflection board supported by a sustainable platform where cities, regions, member states and the European Commission/institutions exchange ideas and experiences on strategic public procurement. This action is aimed at knowledge exchange and the scale up of the Partnership. Public procurement will no longer be seen as something that only is interesting for purchasers, but as a strategic tool for implementing various policy priorities.
action 2
Achieve the EU Green Deal, Digitalisation and Innovation (GDDI) goals by using public procurement as a strategic tool. There are plenty of initiatives to develop strategic procurement and it is important to invest in various connecting initiatives. The aim of this action is to build capacity and capability within and beyond the UAPP community to enhance procurement professionals’ impact on cities’ achievement of green deal, digitalisation and innovation goals. A series of sub-actions will – in combination – help extend the work of the Partnership, leverage past and future outputs, and connecting and supporting procurement professionals.
action 3
Enabling economic recovery through public procurement. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on many cities and countries across Europe. For the Partnership, the process of buying goods, services and works is a key mechanism for stimulating economic recovery. By economic recovery we mean enabling businesses to return to developing and growing in a financial way, but also in a way that enables the wider ranging local economic, social, health, and environmental challenges emerging from the Covid-19 Pandemic to be addressed.
Open this link to know more about our Action Plan 2022.
The final Action Plan 2022 will be published in March 2022. Your feedback will be read and processed! So please give your feedback by filling in our Public Consultation Form before February 11, 2022. Thank you!
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INTERVIEW
INTRODUCING OUR NEW PARTNERSHIP MEMBER:
ADAM sAWICKI, cITY OF KOSZALIN, POLAND
Adam works for the Department of Development and Territorial Cooperation in the Polish City of Koszalin, in the North-Western part of Poland. He is specialized in Development Strategy and works on the development and strategy implementation in Koszalin and EU-funded projects.
The wider region of Koszalin has a population of 170.000 inhabitants (the city itself has 107.000 inhabitants), and is a beautiful area with plenty of lakes and forests. The city Koszalin has a regional and provincial function, with its sport & recreational facilities, its educational importance with the Technical University and its Regional Hospital. All of which are large public procurers as well!
The reason why Koszalin joined the Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement is that the city has been infected with the enthusiasm for the subject of strategic public procurement, while working and exchanging experience with other European partners. ‘’We found out that public procurement can be so much more than just a mere procedure of selecting contractors of public tasks with the focus on the lowest price. It can be perceived as a complex tool to support the economy and to address local and social challenges and environmental challenges as well!’’ Adam told us that the procurement laws in Poland are quite strict, which complicate matters, but that the Partnership provides tools (via the online Public Procurement E-learning module: https://uapp.maester.com/ ) on how to deal with it. Next to this, the Partnership gives a helping hand on how to use more non-price criteria (such as environmental criteria). Adam: ‘’We lack experience in implementing social criteria, that is why we wanted to learn from the best practices in this Partnership!”
Adam also gave an insight on how the Partnership helps to build a connection between the city and the local entrepreneurs. The economy of Koszalin is mainly based on its Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), like a lot of cities in Europe. Adam: ‘’We believe that we can address the various challenges, by supporting the local SMEs. We have engaged in an effective dialogue with our local businesses. They pointed our attention to subjects that complicate matters for them, such as splitting contracts into smaller lots or giving more time for submitting bids. That is what we are working on right now. Our goal is to support our local SMEs and our local economy. We want to be one of the leading cities in Poland in terms of Innovative Public Procurement. Our participation in these networks has raised a lot of attention already!’’
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introducing a new member:
The Barcelona Provincial Council
At the start of 2022 we welcome The Barcelona Provincial Council as a new member of our Partnership. They presented themselves in our Partnership meeting on January 11th and are very enthousiastic to work with all European partners and associates. The Barcelona Provincial Council includes 311 municipalities around Barcelona. Please find below their promotion video:
In our next Newsletter we will publish an interview with the Barcelona Provincial Council and their goals and collaboration to participate in our Partnership.
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The Partnership members in 2022:
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BEST PRACTICES FROM OUR PARTNERs
The way to know more about Strategic Public Procurement and implementing the tools in your organization or project is by learning from the experiences of other UA partners. Find below the BEST PRACTICE of our partner The Czech Ministry of Agriculture, Czech Republic:
Prague, Czech Republic: project 'STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT for using environmental, sustainable and innovative aspects in public procurement '
By Pavel Broum, Head of Public Procurement Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Prague, Czech Republic
“By using the methodology and implement public procurement, the environmental aspect is achieved by reducing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and create less waste thanks to renewable local natural sources.”
Photo: Pavel Broum
Pavel Broum is the Head of Public Procurement Department of the Czech Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry deals with matters such as agriculture, water management, forest management and the food industry. The Ministry has 800 employees. “Agriculture is also an important part of the Czech economy”, says Pavel Broum.
The Ministry of Agriculture has developed and implemented a strategy to work with the environmental, sustainable and innovative aspects of public procurement. New legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of 2021, helped to boost these aspects in the procurement. Before this law, the procurement of the Ministry of Agriculture was mainly based on the lowest price criterium. Nowadays the environmental, sustainable and innovative aspects are an important factor as well!
The best practice is a methodology for using wood in public procurement: the contracting authorities have set conditions for the use of wood as a technical condition of the public contract. The methodology recommends using the institute of preliminary market consultation and open procurement procedures to obtain sufficient information on whether to use wood or not in the public tender, with the possibility of the evaluation criterium of life cycle costs, including costs caused by environmental impacts. Pavel Broum: ‘’It would be more logical to use local wood from the Czech Republic, instead of importing wood from the United States or China. That way, the methodology can be used to reduce our environmental footprint and contracting authorities can use wood as a renewable local natural source. Meanwhile, the wooden buildings reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere!’’
An interesting example named in the methodology, is the innovative use of CLT laminated solid wood in the construction of the visitor center Olšina. The CLT panels are light and airthight. The roof covering is done in an innovative way, by installing extensive vegetation, which contributes to a better local climate. Thanks to its appearance, wood is a material that allows buildings to be properly incorporated into the landscape. The fusion of the building with the surrounding nature is a great advantage of wood.
An important part in the process is to involve market parties in the procurement process. Pavel Broum: “In 2021, the ministry organized several meetings with experts in wood purposes and with contracting authorities, such as our ministry and local governments, which helps us to develop the methodology in a better way. In 2022, we want to plan meetings with suppliers: ‘Meet the Buyers’. We want to support the market in this development. The advantage of the new legislation and the methodology can be used in the period before the tender; it gives room for exchanging knowledge with the market parties and other public authorities.’’
Looking at the results already achieved, the development of this strategy and methodology has proven to be successful!
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The City of Vantaa is winner of the Innovation City Award 2021; the City of Haarlem is the semi-finalist
The winner of the prestigious European Capital of Innovation City Award 2021 is the Finnish City of Vantaa, one of our partners in the Urban Agenda Partnership since day one; we congratulate Vantaa with this very special award!
You can find the winning promotion video of Vantaa here: https://vantaakanava.fi/icapital/
The City of Haarlem has reached the semi-finals, along with seven other cities. In the semi-finals, Valentina Schippers-Opejko, coordinator of the European Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement, and Jos Wienen, mayor of Haarlem (the Netherlands), gave an inspiring presentation about Haarlem as a sustainable, social and innovative city; you can find the accompanying video here:
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URBACT’s online course now available in 7 languages
Good news! All training modules of the URBACT Online Course on Strategic Procurement have been translated into 7 languages: Estonian, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Polish. URBACT’s procurement knowledge is available here!
Would you like to stay updated on procurement tools, best practices and events? Sign in for the URBACT Procurement Newsletter.
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Public Procurement Event in Nice, France, on the 28th of February 2022
"How can the European framework for public procurement be adapted to make it an accelerator of ecological and social transition at the local level? "
France Urbaine and Nice Côte d´Azur Metropolis are hosting a Public Procurement Event in Nice, France, and online on February 28, 2022.
This event is organized in the context of the French presidency of the EU Council. One of the speakers is Valentina Schippers-Opejko, coordinator of the Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement.
Main subject during this event is to pursue the reflection about possible changes of the European framework for public procurement. This event aims to promote the issue of environmentally and socially responsible public procurement in the European Union, so that local authorities use more their purchases as a strategic tool in favor of ecological and social transition and the resilience of their territories.
The link to the program and the link to register for this event are not yet available on the publication date of this Newsletter (January 19, 2022). For updates on the program and for registration, please check the website of France Urbaine.
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all information about the EU UA Public Procurement partnership can be found on:
Futurium, Urban Agenda for the EU: Public Procurement
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GENERAL INFORMATION
Would you like to know more about the possibilities for your organization or are you interested in becoming a partner?
Please contact the coordinator of the Partnership Valentina Schippers-Opejko by e-mail: vopejko@haarlem.nl
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This newsletter is a production by the EU Urban Agenda coordination team Partnership for Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement.
City of Haarlem
Credits:
Gemaakt met een afbeelding van rawpixel - "untitled image"