Research Presentation Elisabetta Manunza at European Public Procurement Conference

On 24 October 2018, Elisabetta Manunza presented her research on ‘Socially responsible public procurement’ at the annual European Public Procurement Conference in Brussels. At the conference, she discussed various ways in which EU Public Procurement Law facilitates the creation of social value through public procurement procedures. Furthermore, the pressing issue was raised about the level on which the legislative and policy choices relating to socially responsible procurement need to be made, also in light of the principle of subsidiarity. For the creation of social value, it is first necessary to define the concept and how it can be measured. The legal principles of equality and transparency are, in that regard, not always adequate to resolve certain problems in practice. In the end, legal objective frameworks to review the broad discretionary powers of (local) contracting authorities in court are needed, providing sufficient judicial protection to affected parties. After her presentation, she took part in a debate with Marc Steiner (Judge at the Swiss Federal Administrative Court) on how the creation of ‘social value’ should be extracted and how it fits within the EU’s internal market.

For more information and the full program, see the website of the conference.