(Madrid, February 24, 2017) .- The Spanish Business Confederation of Social Economy (CEPES) asks the political groups that the Draft Government Procurement Law being debated in Congress, as calls for Europe to attend social criteria and environmental, and not only the most advantageous offer.
CEPES has maintained contacts with all political forces represented in parliament to move and to include in future legislative text all their proposals, especially the transposition of Article 77 of the European Directive, which has not been included in the bill.
"It is important to note that all parliamentary groups have shown their support and appreciation to the proposals of CEPES, we are confident that the various stages of the parliamentary process to collect those proposed in the Social Economy content, and entail a change in the conception of recruitment as a public policy tool which contributes to the generation of wealth, stable employment, social and territorial cohesion , "said the president of CEPES, Juan Antonio Pedreño.
CEPES considers that this bill, which accounts for 20% of GDP, not harnessing the power that the European Directive provides for companies and entities of the Social Economy involved in procurement processes. "Currently," he added Pedreño, "the percentage of public contracts awarded to companies and organizations of the Social Economy is very low in comparison to its actual weight in GDP and employment".
To change this situation, CEPES bet because the transposition into Spanish law includes proposals regarding multiple aspects that have not been covered by the Bills, even though many of them were defended by the Economic and Social Council.
Specifically, CEPES proposals focus on:
• Overcoming the "outdated concept of the economically most advantageous offer" when awarding public contracts, and replace it with the "best value" as the Directive.
• Mandatory inclusion of social clauses in the award criteria and performance conditions of contracts.
• guarantees effective and compulsory reserve contracts for companies whose corporate purpose is the creation of employment for people with special difficulties of employability (Special Employment Centres and Integration Companies Cooperatives Social Initiative) Application.
• Provide Public Administrations of the tools provided for in the Directive for facultative asides for businesses owned by the workers, or the workers involved in its management, always in the categories of contracts of health care, education , cultural, social ... as stated in Article 77 of the directive.
• Clarify assumptions that affect business subrogation specific business models of Social Economy, Worker Cooperatives and Special Employment Centres.
• Pickup state regulations, for the first time, the possibility for Púb Administrationslic of benefit to the figures of authorization and license (social concerts) for the provision of social services by non-profit operators.
• Full immediate effectiveness of the prohibition to contract with the government for companies that fail to comply with the obligation to hire people with disabilities (booking fee).
CEPES believes that the inclusion of these proposals in the future Spanish public procurement law ensure the efficiency and rationalization of public budgets, by encouraging the participation of SMEs and companies and organizations in the Social Economy, a sector that shows that it is possible to combine the generation of wealth with social and territorial cohesion.
