In addition, since 2015, the City Council of Pamplona has developed the TREBATU project, whose objective is to encourage the participation of SMEs, micro-SMEs and self-employed professionals in public procurement, as well as to encourage access by social economy companies and entities to public procurement.
In a coherent manner, and through a planning aligned with both projects, the Local Government Board of the Municipality of Pamplona in session held on 16th of April 2019, approved a Strategic and Socially Responsible Public Procurement Instruction, as well as a Guide to Strategic and Socially Responsible Public Contracting, including social clauses, as well as compliance verification tools and systems for measuring the social impact of public procurement.
This Instruction and the accompanying Guide, imply that the City Council of Pamplona is endowed with a homogeneous standard, with full legal guarantees and mandatory compliance, assuming the commitment to incorporate social and environmental criteria in all municipal public procurement.
Making Spend Matter Transfer Network, TREBATU project and the Strategic and Socially Responsible Public Procurement Instruction start from the same premise: the implementation of a socially responsible public procurement strategy with a greater vision of service to citizens and an impact in terms of social integration, redistribution, equality and sustainability.
Within this new paradigm, strategic public procurement is understood as an instrument of social transformation without any impairment of the community principles of public procurement such as, among others, transparency and free competition.
These approaches of responsibility, effectiveness, equity and sustainability, are fully in line with the principles established in the European Parliament and Council Directives 2014/23/EU and 2014/24/EU, and by the new regional and Spanish national legal framework on public procurement, established by Law 9/2017, of 8th of November, of Public Sector Contracts, and Regional Law 2/2018, of 13th of April, of Public Contracts of Navarre.
In this regard, we advocate that public procurement must adapt to new social, cultural, institutional and economic changes. In short, it is a question of proposing new strategies that allow for greater social responsibility of the contractors, while facilitating the access of SMEs, micro-enterprises and social economy companies to public procurement.
It is no longer just a simple procurement of supplies, execution of works, or provision of services, but the recruitment must become an effective instrument for the pursuit of the objectives of the Strategy of the European Commission "Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” [COM (2010) 2020 final of 3.3.2010], to achieve socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable and innovative growth.
Ultimately, we seek a model of public procurement that maintains the principles of effectiveness and efficiency, but also integrates and enhances social and environmental objectives, so that each service, work or supply, promotes gender equality, employment of vulnerable people, the rights of people with disabilities, dignified and quality employment, the circular economy, social responsibility of companies, social and territorial cohesion, and facilitate the hiring of Special Employment Centers, Insertion Companies, social economy, as well as SMEs and micro-SMEs.
