Public Procurement in the EU: What Future?

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has recently published a special report 28/2023, on public procurement in the EU. The Court makes a quite severe, wide-ranging critique of the state of competition for public procurements in the EU looking at the period from 2011 to 2021. It also raises question about the efficiency of 2014 public procurement Directives.

This event will be an opportunity to discuss the difficulties encountered in achieving the objectives of the 2014 public procurement reform (e.g. simplifying procurement procedures, increasing SME participation, implementing strategic objectives) and to open up avenues for necessary developments.

 

Speakers

• Helga Berger, Member of the European Court of Auditors

Helga Berger has been a Member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) since 2020. She started in Chamber V (Financing and administering the Union), where she was responsible for the annual report chapter on budgetary management and the special report on “Protecting the EU budget – Better use of blacklisting needed”. In January 2022, she joined Chamber II (Investment for cohesion, growth and inclusion). There, she is currently working on the annual report chapter on Cohesion, Resilience and Value, as well as on a review on the regularity of Cohesion spending. In December 2023 the ECA published the special report “Public procurement in the EU – Less competition for contracts awarded for works, goods and services in the 10 years up to 2021” where Helga Berger has been the Reporting Member.

Before joining the ECA, Helga Berger worked as Director-General for Budget and Public Finances at the Austrian Ministry of Finance, as an auditor and ultimately Director-General for management and support at the Austrian Court of Audit, and as a criminal judge, among others. As a trained lawyer, she has more than 20 years of professional experience in the areas of planning, implementation and control of public finances.

 

• Friedemann Zippel, Principal Manager at the European Court of Auditors

Friedemann Zippel is a Principal Manager at the European Court of Auditors (ECA) where he has been working since 2003. He is specialised in EU key policy areas such as Cohesion Policy, External Actions and Internal Policies and has been managing audit portfolios covering the whole range of ECA audit tasks, including performance, compliance and financial audits. He is passionate in disseminating the ECA’s audit work and results for the benefit of strong EU institutions and citizens trust in their governments and administrations.

Before joining the ECA, he was a Big Four Audit Manager in Germany and specialised in assurance engagements for international clients from IT, car and biotech industries.

 

• Moderator : Stéphane SAUSSIER,  Professor at the Sorbonne Business School