3rd International Open and Sustainable Public Procurement Conference 2024

8:00 Registration

9:00 Opening

9:15 Lightning talk: The state of procurement in the EU: Helga Berger, Member of the European Court of Auditors

9:30 Panel: How to unlock social value in procurement?
Luca Forteleoni, ANAC
Rolf Valenteijn, Government of the Netherlands
Livija Sepetyte, Ignitis Group
Moderator: Anna Maria La Chimia, Nottingham University

10:30 Closing panel: What’s next for the public procurement community in Europe?
Giuseppe Busia, ANAC
Ivo Locatelli, European Commission – GROW
Isabel Da Rosa – IMPIC
Jonaid Myzyri, Public Procurement Commission of Albania
Moderator: Karolis Granickas, OCP

11:30 Coffee break 

12:00 Breakout groups: Round 1 – The power of data

Breakout 1 (Room: Sala Montezemolo)	Breakout 2 (Room: Sala Pittoni)
Getting data architecture right Luca Martinelli, Publications Office Trexyl Chua Miranda, UNOPS (online) Felix Zimmermann, Ministry of Interior representative, Germany  Hans Minkes, TenderNed Netherlands  Moderator: Eliza Niewiadomska, EBRD	Using procurement data for collaborative monitoring Filippo Romano, ANAC Enrico Fusco, Invitalia  Elisa Orlando, Libera  Elena Calistru, Funky Citizens  Moderator: Mara Mendes, TI Germany

13:00 Lunch

14:00 Breakout groups: Round 2 – Procurement data to fight corruption

Breakout 1 (Room: Sala Montezemolo)	Breakout 2 (Room: Sala Pittoni)
Using cross-sectoral approaches to successfully monitor procurement Tunde Tatrai, Corvinus University of Budapest  Luigi Reggi, University of Bergamo,  Monithon  Vitaliy Trenkenchu, Datanomix  Moderator: Antonio Greco, TI-S	Better data, better public trust Reida Kashta, PPA Albania  Audinga Baltrunaite, Bank of Italy   Bruno Gonzales, Oficina Antifrau de Catalunya  Sergii But, Prozorro Sale  Moderator: Camila Salazar, OCP

15:00 Coffee break

15:30 Breakout groups: Round 3 – Procurement policies to fight corruption

Breakout 1 (Room: Sala Montezemolo)	Breakout 2 (Room: Sala Pittoni)
Policy approaches to fighting corruption Alina Mungiu, Luiss University  Michela Gnaldi, University of Perugia  Ferenc Pál Biró, President, Hungarian Integrity Authority (online) Mirela Bogdani, High Council of Prosecution Albania  Moderator: Orjana Ibrahimi, World Bank	Kickstarting anti-corruption reforms with procurement review bodies Jonaid Myzyri, Public Procurement Commission of Albania  Olga Nechytailo, Antimonopoly Committee, Ukraine  Serdar Gunbay, Public Procurement Office Turkiye  Eliza Niewiadomska, EBRD  Moderator: Volodymyr Tarnay, OCP

16:30 – 17:00 End of the Conference

NB This is a non-binding, generalised statement of the key aspirations, outcomes, and insights from the Next Generation Procurement Conference in Rome on 12-13 September. Individual members might have different emphases on certain points, but this is our collective summary and ambition for the future of EU procurement. 

The next few years can be transformational for the European Union. Not only is the Commission considering revising public procurement directives, but 2024 also sees the widespread adoption of the EU’s new procurement E-forms and the start of its Public Procurement Data Space. The Commission is also reviewing its Open Data Directive and exploring including public procurement in the list of high-value datasets. Lastly, the Commission is considering intensifying efforts to make procurement more sustainable, going beyond sectoral greening legislation and promoting social and innovative considerations. 

As we gathered in Rome, we reflected that good procurement is not only a question of regulation and reporting; it is about rethinking procurement as a process to create social value in terms of durable, sustainable, and inclusive assets for people, territories, and communities. Better data, digitalization, new technologies, and new, open ways of collaborating with citizens and businesses to monitor procurement and improve processes give us unprecedented insights into how to make procurement more user-friendly,  inclusive, and socially impactful. 

We also recognise the vital role that the availability of high-quality, timely, and accessible data will play in tracking these outcomes and making the best use of limited public resources, especially as procurement is a high-risk area for corruption. Europe’s Anti-Corruption Directive should strengthen the demand for good procurement data across Europe. 

As a community of governments, public procurement professionals, universities, CSOs, and private companies, we recognize the unique momentum to transform public procurement in Europe into a strategic, data-driven digital service aimed at creating value for citizens, territories, and communities: it must be sustainable value. 

We will work collaboratively both on a national level and with the EU institutions to promote a genuine public procurement transformation, striving to achieve public procurement that is: 

Value-oriented: Sustainable, inclusive, and socially responsible procurement will produce true prosperity growth – a multidimensional (economic, social, civil, and ethical) development that generates value for citizens and ensures a real improvement in the quality of life.

Open by design: procurement systems should be designed to be open by design, automatically publishing real-time, high-quality, well-structured, and standardized open data on the whole procurement process, from planning to implementation, both above and below the EU threshold. 

Sustainable and data-driven: Opening up procurement data would power analysis, giving data-driven insights into how spending could be more strategic to power sustainable, green, socially responsible, inclusive, and innovative procurement. Spending could then be focused to help achieve policy objectives. 

Inclusive: Publishing more information will ensure easier access to tendering information. This can lower the entry and cost barriers of doing business for SMEs and ultimately open procurement opportunities for marginalized groups, such as women-led SMEs. 

Integrated at the European level: The country databases and platforms should be integrated and data harmonised as much as possible to facilitate the exchange of information and boost the common public procurement market.

Effectively monitored: A procurement system that is open by default would not only power better monitoring through the publication of high-quality uniform datasets, but the openness of this data would mean more stakeholders and citizens would be able to monitor procurement. Ultimately, this would help uncover, prevent, and deter corruption and increase democratic participation.

Efficient and effective: Procurement system and procedures designed to provide ease of participation, stimulate competition, at the same time, improve the delivery of goods and services, provide real value and sustainable assets for people, territories, and communities.

We are confident that these principles will decrease levels of corruption and lead to fundamentally better outcomes for citizens and communities (broader participation in public decision-making, greater concern for the environment, fuller realisation of human rights), businesses (fairer competition, market opportunities, fostering entrepreneurship), and governments (better insight, improved accountability and trust between citizens and public administration).

We are excited to get to work in our governments, regions and communities to bring these principles for better procurement across Europe to life.