Socially Responsible Public Procurement
In September 2023, the European Commission’s ‘Training and Awareness-raising Activities in Socially Responsible Public Procurement’ Service Contract (No. EISMEA/2022/OP/0014) kicked off. The consortium, composed of the European Association for Innovation in Local Development (AEIDL), Diesis Network, ICLEI Europe and REVES Network, at the European level, and the Maltese Association of Municipalities in Malta, is implementing this initiative on behalf of the European Commission.
The project aims to increase awareness of socially responsible public procurement (SRPP) benefits among public buyers, advocating its implementation in purchasing policies at various levels. It also seeks to strengthen social economy entities’ (SEEs) access to public procurement markets. The initiative focuses on organising training events in 12 EU Member States, including Malta, and conducting a communications campaign on SRPP in all EU 27 countries.
During the initial phase of this project, the national experts carried out data collection and research activities to analyse the level of maturity of SRPP and to identify public buyers’ and SEEs’ training needs on SRPP in 12 EU Member States, including Malta. This research has been the starting point for the consortium to design the training event that will be held in Malta, in the fall of 2024, in English.
The findings from the research will be presented to a group of experts on SRPP that have been selected to participate in an online focus group, which will take place in June 2024. The focus group will serve as an expert consultation of the findings and an initial agenda for the training events.
The following sections summarise the key findings arising from this research. They are based on the following sources:
- Desk research: the website of Legislation Malta1; procurement policy notes and factsheets by the Department of Contracts2, reports by the European Commission3; the website of the Malta Cooperative Federation4, strategies published by the Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Regeneration of the Grand Harbour5, reports by the OECD6, reports by the Maltese Parliament7, and reports by UNI Europa8.
- 6 interviews were carried out with the stakeholders listed in the table below:
| Region & public authority level | Type of stakeholder | Organisation | Profile of interviewee |
| Municipal | Maltese Association of Municipalities | Maltese Association of Municipalities | Representative |
| N/A | APEX organisation for co-operatives | Koperattivi Malta | Representative |
| National Government | Central government | Department of Contracts of the Ministry for Finance | Director for Procurement Policy and Quality Assurance |
| National | Government organisation | Local Councils’ Association (LCA) | Local councillor |
| N/A | NGO | Migrant Women Association Malta (MWAM) | Representative |
| N/A | Academia | IURIS and Unviversity of Malta | Researchers |
Level of maturity of SRPP in Malta
From the desk research and interviews conducted during the scoping phase, it emerged that while Malta has the legislative framework to implement socially responsible public procurement, the level of maturity of SRPP in Malta is quite low. The research pointed out that there is little awareness of the topic and its potential benefits, among public authorities, public procurers, SEEs, and policymakers. To establish the level of maturity of SRPP in the EU 27 MS, the project team has considered six criteria for which comparable information exists. The results concerning Malta are summarised in the table below. On a methodological note, it is important to point out that the findings about the level of SRPP maturity in Malta are based on the information, the views and the perceptions collected during the interviews listed above, as well as from the desk research and the legal analysis of the Maltese Public Procurement Regulations Chapter Subsidiary Legislation 601.03 (2016) transposing Directive 2014/24/EU conducted in the initial phase of the project. These findings will be discussed during the focus group meeting. The country report was written by Dr. Vincent Caruana and Dr. Romina Bartolo. The legal analysis was carried out by Dr. Romina Bartolo and focused on the following provisions of Directive 2014/24/EU that are relevant for SRPP:- Article 18.2: horizontal social clause
- Article 20: reserved contracts
- Article 40: preliminary market consultations
- Article 42: technical specifications
- Article 43: labels
- Article 46: division into lots
- Article 56: exclusion grounds
- Article 58: selection criteria
- Article 70: contract performance conditions
- Article 74-77: light regime.
