This is our weekly European public procurement news roundup. We will be bringing you recent public sector stories and information from around Europe’s news portals, reporting on how more than a trillion Euros of taxpayer money is being spent.
Municipalities urged to use green street lights (not the color!) to reduce costs
Current street lamps are to be phased out in 9 European regions in 2017 and green street lighting is set to achieve annual savings of 32,100 MWh and €4.8 million. Procurement of Innovation platform reports that “cities across Europe are being encouraged to use energy performance contracting (EPC) to install more efficient street-lighting, using the money saved through lower electricity bills to fund the conversion costs. Old street lighting systems account for between 30 – 50 percent of municipalities’ total energy consumption, but new lighting technology can achieve energy savings of between 30 – 70 percent.”
€9m EU project to expand life sciences sector in Wales and Ireland
Good news for SME businesses in Ireland and Wales over the next four years as the EU invests €9.3 million in a new project to expand life sciences. The funding will support research and development programmes, which will be led by Swansea University in partnership with Irish and Welsh universities. As part of the project businesses will have access to specialist technology and a network of partner experts from universities and global healthcare leaders, including Unilever and GE Healthcare. The network aims to support the development of new technologies, products, processes and services, leading to new jobs and further investment in the life science sectors. More information is here on CompeteFor.
Package Travel category to come under EU regulations
A new Package Travel Directive (2015/2302/EU) was adopted at the end of last year, and Member States have until January 1 next year to transpose it; it will then be applicable from July 1, 2018. Member States will be supported by the European Commission in this process with workshops organised in Brussels. More details can be found here on the EC website. And there’s an interesting article on Travel Weekly.
Smart@Fire conference – December
Smart@Fire is the European FP7 project that aims to develop a smart Personal Protective System for firefighters, looking for innovative technologies to reduce the risks of firefighting. These might include sensors to measure environmental parameters and vital body functions, localization systems to determine the firefighter’s position, or data transfer and visualisation systems to better assess situations, among others. The project is coming to an end and so this is the final conference where results of the ‘go-to-market’ initiative will be announced. It will take place December 14-15, in Brussels.
Traffic Management agreement supports UK government’s commitment to sustainability
Newly launched by Crown Commercial Service, a new agreement for traffic management technology products and services will provide suppliers with a great opportunity to win new public sector contracts. It is developed in conjunction with Highways England, devolved administrations, local transport authorities and Transport for London, and contains 90 suppliers, over 50% of which are SMEs. There’s more detail here.
President Trump: Procurement, Supply Chain and Policy Perspectives
Our colleague Jason Busch over on Spend Matters US has written the first of what will probably be many posts on the implications of the recent ‘Trump Triumph’ for procurement. He breaks them down into three areas: environmental policy, trade policy and tax policy. Read more here.
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