Europe Committee is the FEACO Working Group on issues related to EU Public Procurement


The Europe Committee was set up in 1995 with the objective of improving the working environment for consultancies involved in carrying out projects within the framework of the Phare programme. This has been extended to cover all external assistance programmes.

The Europe Committee operates with the help of a consultant and active involvement of the FEACO secretariat, as well as considerable support and efforts from its members. 

The Europe Committee does not engage in commercial activities.

Recent activities of the Europe Committee have evolved around 4 issues:

 

• 1. The implementation of the new rules and structures for external aid projects, on which the EU spends yearly about 6 billion Euro.
• 2. The foreseen changes to the Financial Regulation, which applies to all EU budgetary expenditure (EU procurement), and the resulting changes to the implementing rules and the PRAG (Practical Guide for procurement for EU External Aid)
• 3. The promotion of more transparency in budget support to development countries through the introduction of controls, evaluation and technical assistance.
• 4.The promotion of management consulting services for regional development in the EU.

External aid:
Linked to the reform of the external aid procedures and structures the Europe Committee has organised since 1997 a number of conferences to discuss, between consultants and Commission officials, the effect of these new rules and structure of external aid and to raise awareness of problems which could occur and give ideas for further improvement of the system. In 2002 FEACO submitted a Position Paper on the subject. more

These conferences formed the basis of a continuous dialogue between the Commission and the Europe Committee aimed at ensuring a workable system for both, the consultants and the authorities involved.

External Aid procurement rules, which are laid down in the Practical Guide for EU External Aid projects, form, as a result of their specific character, an exception to the standard rules for budgetary spending, which are laid down in the Financial Regulation.

The Europe Committee supported the Commission initiative to bring the rules for European Development spending in line with the External Aid rules. European Development is funded by the European Development Fund which is constituted of direct contributions from the EU Member States. The Financial Regulation does not apply to projects funded through the Development Fund, as the Fund is not part of the Community budget.

Although the new Financial Regulation considerably improved the system for EU procurement and the transparency thereof, the implementation, which for a large part has been laid down in Implementing Rules, still needs further harmonisation and fine-tuning. The Europe Committee has therefore decided to extend its discussions to other parts of the Commission, such as the Directorate General for budget (DG BUDGET), responsible for the implementation of the budget, and DG REGIO, responsible for regional aid, an area of interest to management consultants.

The Europe Committee has continuous discussions with all the players who can contribute to the improvement of the working framework for European Management Consultants. Recently the Europe Committee has extended its activities to the OECD Development Committee, as this is the forum where international financial institutions, such as the European Commission, the World Banks and the Asian Development bank etc... discuss harmonisation of their policies and procedures.

 

FEACO European Federation of Management Consultancies - Associations Fédération Européenne des associations de conseils en organisation