On the 5th and 6th of May, the 5th European Conference on Sustainable and Innovative Public Procurement was held in Lisbon, Portugal. 

The conference organised by Observatório de Prospectiva da Engenharia e da Tecnologia (OPET) aimed to address major challenges in sustainable public buying. Speakers from different organizations shared their research on sustainable and innovative public procurement with a focus on COP26 targets on sustainability, digital transition in public procurement, the threat of the lowest-price-only, new procedures brought by 2014 Directives, social responsibility and food procurement.

Both the SAPIENS lead researchers and Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) participated in the conference to present their research on sustainable and innovative public procurement. On the first day of the conference, SAPIENS lead researcher and Network Coordinator Prof. Roberto Caranta, along with his co-chairman Prof. Luís Valadares Tavares, set the framework of the conference for sessions to follow. In the first session “the Green Challenge”, ESR 4 Nadia Sava presented her research on smart contracts and public procurement with a focus on their potential and implementation. She addressed the weaknesses of the current literature and shared how this research will bridge the gap between theory and practice. SAPIENS lead researcher Prof. Marta Andhov presented current research project carried out with ESR 12 Federica Muscaritoli on public procurement and climate change law intersection. The presentation focused on mapping what are the current legal obligations regarding climate change mitigation and what consequences, if any, they may have on public procurement law. The question has been raised on whether we need to amend EU Treaties or applying a broader interpretation of what internal market is in 2022 could be sufficient to ensure that there would be broader possibility of integration of climate neutrality goals in public procurement.

In the following session, the focus was “the Strategic Challenge”. In the session where public supply chain management and novel procedures of 2014 Directives were presented, SAPIENS lead researcher Prof. Tünde Tátrai shared her work on the uses and abuses of dynamic purchasing systems (DPSs). Prof. Tátrai first compared the DPSs and framework agreements and later explained their (mis)use along with the role and responsibility of the central purchasing bodies (CPBs) when using DPSs and framework agreements. Though new, as Prof. Tátrai expressed, DPSs are expected to grow in importance.

The morning session of the second day of the conference addressed “the Complexity, Innovation and Circular challenges”. The session started with a presentation by our lead researcher, Prof. Caranta on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and sustainability under the EU legal regime. Though they are commonly used for building and managing major works, there is no definition of PPPs, or complex contracts such as Design-Built-Operate (DBO) and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) at the EU level. Still, sustainability concerns can be accommodated in complex public construction contracts. SAPIENS Lead Researcher Prof. Steven Van Garsse presented PPPs and the Circular Economy. In his presentation, he demonstrated the need for transitioning from linear to circular also in procurement. As indicated by the European Parliament, circularity in procurement is not only used to fight against climate change but it brings along other opportunities such as supply security, competitiveness, innovation, growth and jobs. Prof. Steven Van Garsse explained that due to the long-term nature of PPPs, they offer great opportunities for supporting the circular economy.

The conference was concluded with a session on “the Social Challenge”. In this session, Our ESR 7 Ezgi Uysal and ESR 8 Laura Treviño Lozano presented their research on the applicability and impacts of mandatory human rights due diligence on public procurement. After providing a brief overview of the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs) on Business and Human Rights, they presented the European Commission’s recent proposal on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and its shortcomings. They argued the Proposal was a missed opportunity. The Draft does not address exclusion from public contracts as a possible sanction for breaches of the Directive. However, they submitted that the Proposal, if adopted, will inevitably have impacts on public contracts to prevent, mitigate and redress human rights abuses occurring in public supply chains.

A selection of papers presented at the conference will be published after a review by the peers of the EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT MARKETS.