Press Releases

On 15-17 November 2011, the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) will be proud to honour the most innovative performers in European public administration with the prestigious European Public Sector Award 2011. This is an award for the best and most innovative public sector performers in the fields of: Smart Public Service Delivery in a Cold Economic Climate; Opening up the Public Sector through Collaborative Governance; and Going Green: Concrete Solutions from the Public Sector. The highlights of this international event will take place at three different venues in Maastricht: the Town Hall of Maastricht, the European Institute of Public Administration headquarters and the Provincial Government Buildings on the Meuse.

Op 15, 16 en 17 november aanstaande zal EIPA (European Institute of Public Administration) met trots de prestigieuze 'European Public Sector Award 2011’ uitreiken aan de meest innovatieve Europese overheidsorganisaties. Het internationale evenement dat rondom deze prijsuitreiking in Maastricht georganiseerd wordt, vindt plaats op drie bekende Maastrichtse locaties: het Stadhuis, het Limburgse Provinciehuis en EIPA’s hoofdkantoor aan het Onze Lieve Vrouweplein. Vertegenwoordigers van lokale, regionale en nationale overheden uit 18 Europese landen en diverse hoogwaardigheidsbekleders zullen aanwezig zijn.

Prof. Dr Marga Pröhl, Director-General of the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), and Peter Goldschmidt, Director of EIPA’s European Centre for Judges and Lawyers, express their support to the European Commission’s Communication on Judicial Training, adopted on 13 September 2011.

The EPSA 2011 Team is pleased to announce that the high-level EPSA 2011 Jury last met on 5 September at EIPA Maastricht to reach the final selection of the 15 nominees (5 per theme) from among the 21 applications that had been visited on-site during June and July. The 15 nominated projects come from nine countries; 9 have been submitted by the local level of government, five by the regional level and one by the national level. These best applications span sectors such as education, health, agriculture, climate change, environment, child care and immigration.

The EPSA 2011 Team at EIPA is pleased to announce that, following the three evaluation steps out of four completed so far, 58 applications from among the 274 submitted have been chosen to receive a Best Practice Certificate. These 58 applications were submitted by 18 countries in total, across the three EPSA 2011 themes.

The EPSA 2011 award contest was officially launched on 17 January 2011 when the call for applications was also opened. The deadline for applications closed on the 13th of April.

The EPSA 2011 Team is pleased to announce that a substantial number of applications were submitted to the 2011 edition. In total, 274 applications from 32 European countries and European institutions were received and are also eligible for the evaluation phase. Top country submitters in the 2011 edition were Spain, Romania, Austria, Italy, Poland and Germany. Out of the 274 applications, 116 came from the local government level, 66 from the regional level, 85 from the national level, and 7 from European institutions.

A report published on PFI/PPP last week by the UK’s National Audit Office highlights several issues raised in EIPA’s book on PPP in September 2007 (“PPP – A decision maker’s guide” by Michael Burnett).

Due to the high demand and interest, EIPA is offering public administrations across Europe more time to submit applications for the European Public Sector Award 2011. The deadline is now extended until 13 April 2011 (24.00hrs CEST)!

On 17 January EIPA officially launched the European Public Sector Award 2011 (EPSA 2011) at the European Commission in Brussels. With an audience of approx. 100 stakeholders from European public administrations, the launch event was opened with a word of welcome by Maroš Šefcovic (SK), Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration in Brussels.

EIPA’s impact on the procurement of major PPP infrastructure projects through Competitive Dialogue has been praised in an influential European PPP journal.

On Monday 17 January 2011 the Vice-President of the European Commission, Mr Maroš Šefcovic, and EIPA’s Director-General, Professor Dr Marga Pröhl will launch EPSA 2011.

EIPA’s impact on the European PPP agenda has been recognised in major study, “A guide to guidance – Sourcebook for PPPs”, carried out by Frontier Economics for DG MOVE, the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency and the European PPP Expertise Centre.

A succesfull seminar on Supporting SME and Enterprise Development through EU Programmes and Policies in Shannon, Ireland, resulted in press coverage in The Irish Independent and on the website of the Shannon Chamber of Commerce.
For the full article in The Irish Independent, click here.

Contrary to the emerging legal advice on the potential role of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and development cooperation under the Lisbon Treaty, this legal brief argues that the stipulations concerning this area contained in the proposal for a Council decision of 25 March 2010 on the EEAS, are entirely consonant with the Treaty. In particular this brief argues that development cooperation is a shared competence and not, as is often argued, an exclusive competence. It is also noted that the Treaty places the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) on an equal footing with other EU external relations policies and brings an end to the default setting of, for instance, EU policy in development cooperation. The legally binding obligation for the Union to ensure consistency between the different areas of external action and between these and its other policies again provides the overarching rationale. Finally, it is observed that the elevation of the eradication of poverty to an objective of the Union in its external action offers far greater leverage for a development perspective in EU external actions, rather than any alleged illegal politicisation of development cooperation.

Authors: Dr Simon Duke (European Institute of Public Administration) and Dr Steven Blockmans (T.M.C. Asser Institute)

For the full-text version click here or visit our publications portal.

Competitive Dialogue was created by the 2004 Public Procurement Directives as a new and more flexible solution for public authorities wanting to award contracts for complex infrastructure projects”. But, says Michael Burnett, PPP expert at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), “not all methods of using it have proved to be equally effective in promoting value for money for the public sector”. And, he continues, “objective advice for public sector decision makers on when and how to use Competitive Dialogue effectively is hard to find”.

To meet these challenges EIPA has just published a new book ““Competitive Dialogue – A practical guide” written by Michael Burnett in collaboration with Martin Oder.