SSE_logoEurodiaconia co-authored a briefing with Social Services Europe on the new rules for public procurement. The rules were adopted last month by the European Parliament following agreement with national governments. Public procurement is the purchase of goods, services and public works by governments and public utilities. To ensure fair processes public procurement is regulated by EU law and the briefing examines when this law should apply.

Key points in the new directive relevant for Eurodiaconia members:

  • It explicitly recognises the special characteristics of social services and because of this creates a lighter regulatory framework for them. Public authorities have flexibility when they develop their rules for contracting social services
  • It refers to the European Voluntary Quality Framework for Social Services and references key quality criteria for social services
  • It lays out rules for reserving contracts of social and health services to not-for-profit type organisations, but these rules are not clear
  • It extends the possibility to reserve markets of goods and services from sheltered employment of persons with disabilities to also disadvantaged persons
  • It specifically mentions staff qualifications and training as possible award and contract performance criteria, but they cannot be technical specifications (that exclude providers from the process).
  • It explicitly refers to the wide discretion of Member States to organise their social service provision and mentions some alternatives to public procurement

National authorities have two years to implement the directive and there is flexibility in how they do this. We call on the European Commission to guide national authorities in the implementation of the new procurement rules in order that they understand all the possibilities to promote quality social services.

We will provide our members with further guidance on how they might engage with the process of implementing the text in national law to promote regimes that support sustainable, quality services.

The briefing examines in more detail the issues mentioned above and can be read here.