Prof. Willem Janssen gives his vision on the future of public procurement at meeting of the European Commission and Member States

Prof. Willem Janssen , Endowed Professor of Procurement Law at our Faculty, has been invited by the European Commission to share his expertise. He will give his views on future public procurement at the meeting on 30 May 2024, where all EU member states are represented.

Vision of public procurement in the future

The meeting on 30 May has the theme ‘Future priorities and developments of public procurement’. The current approach to public procurement in the EU has been questioned in the report by the European Court of Auditors of last year and the more recent ‘Letta’ report. Janssen, together with prof. Tunde Tatrai (Corvinus University Budapest), will give input on the vision for public procurement in the future. They will also discuss with the others what the next steps and main focal points are in this framework.

Commission Government Experts Group on Public Procurement

The group that comes together during the meeting is called the ‘Commission Government Experts Group on Public Procurement’ (EXPP). The EXPP consists of government representatives from all EU member states and was established to advise the European Commission on its public procurement policy. Its role is to assist the Commission in defining and developing public procurement policy for the internal market (including its international dimension). The EXPP complements the Advisory Committee for Public Contracts.

Research and Education on future-oriented public procurement law

Willem Janssen was appointed Endowed Professor of Public Procurement Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Groningen on 1 September 2023. His future-oriented research line ‘Public Procurement (Law) for Good’ focuses on the effectiveness of public procurement law with an eye for the proper functioning of public procurement practice. He teaches the master course ‘Sustainable Public Procurement Law’. The chair was established by the Dutch Association for Public Procurement Law (NVvA) and housed in the European and Economic Law (EER) section of the Department of Business Law, European Law and Tax Law. In addition to his position at the UG, Janssen is an Associate Professor of European and Dutch procurement law at Utrecht University.

This article was published by the Faculty of Law.