BESTEK - The Public Procurement Podcast

In this episode, Willem and Marta discuss the role of public procurement law in the development towards more servitization. They also touch upon the problems that arise due to servitization trends and how to solve them. For dessert, they discuss all male panels in academia ('manels').

In this episode, Marta and Willem discuss sustainable food procurement. They focus on current problems with food systems and the importance of food. Furthermore, they dig into the legal difficulties public procurers face when they attempt to buy sustainably. Some of the pain points they discuss are certification, localism, freshness requirements, seasonality, and promotion of small farmers and SME...

In this episode, Marta and Willem explore competitive obligations outside the Classic Directive. They focus on a recent Dutch Supreme Court case of Didam in which the equality and transparency principles were deemed to apply to the sale of land by a Dutch municiplatie. This has led to a plethora of legal questions in the Dutch context. Their call to action: is the sale of law distributed competiti...

In this episode, Willem & Marta discuss access to public contracts for citizens' initiatives and social enterprises. They delve into the hurdles they face, the legal possibilities for contracting authorities to stimulate them, and future options to extend those options. For the finale, they discuss how to conference.

In this episode, Marta and Willem discuss the role of objectives in public procurement law. Is the objective of ‘public procurement’ and the objective of ‘public procurement law’ the same? How does the EU objective relate to national objectives? And: why should we care about them for the sake of interpretation? For dessert, they talk about social media and academic life.

In episode 13 of the podcast, Marta and Willem discuss the Icelandic Equal Pay mandatory standard. Particularly, the possibilities and limitations of its applicability in public procurement. For the dessert, our hosts share with our audience upcoming PhD courses in public procurement.

In this episode, Marta and Willem discuss the rules related to centralised purchasing bodies, their role in public procurement, the national differences that exist in the EU, and their procurement techniques. For dessert, they delve into the question of how to stay up to date in public procurement.

procurement. What will change in the assessment of courts when faced with claims of bidders that argue that a tender is not sustainable enough? For dessert, they discuss rewards & recognition in academia.

In episode #10, we discuss article 70 Directive 2014/24/EU. Particularly we focus our discussions on the relationship between contract performance conditions and award criteria and technical specifications. This leads us to reflect on the enforceability and value of contract performance conditions. For dessert, we discuss what some of our rituals that positively influence our productivity are.

In today’s episode, we discuss the transfer of competences and responsibilities in light of article 1(6) Directive 2014/24/EU and the relevant case-law including Remondis and Porin Kaupunki. The key question here is how it differs from the award of a public contract, and how this plays out for the national organization of public tasks. For dessert, we discuss two books we wish we wrote.

In episode #8, we discuss article 18(2) Directive 2014/24/EU. Its nature, character, and scope as well as shortcomings. We focus our discussions on analyzing whether the sustainability referred to in Article 18(2) can pass the test to be truly understood as a procurement principle. This leads us to reflect on the CJEU ruling in Case C-395/18 Tim SpA where the court refers to 18(2) cardinal values...

In today’s episode, we discuss institutionalized cooperation under article 12(1-3) Directive 2014/24/EU. We focus our discussions on the outstanding and most pressing discussions that currently create legal uncertainty in the Member States. This leads us to talking about private capital, control, and other aspects of cooperation between contracting authorities. For dessert, we consider online conf...

In today’s episode, we discuss a highly politically charged topic of 3rd country access to the EU market. For this purpose, we consider the current EU legal framework as well as proposed since 2012 International Procurement instrument. Also, we comment on the new European Commission’s white paper on foreign subsidies and especially it’s module 3 with propositions for public procurement. For desser...

In today’s episode, we discuss the tricky concept of non-institutionalised cooperation and its relationship with EU public procurement law. For this purpose, we consider the recent ruling of the CJEU in the case of Stadt Köln. In this case, the CJEU made significant headway in clarifying some aspects of article 12(4) Directive 2014/24/EU for the first time. For dessert, we stick to the theme of co...

In this episode of Bestek, we discuss framework agreements. Some would say a "hot topic" of late, particularly following a CJEU judgment in case C-216/17, Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato - Antitrust and Coopservice. We consider what changes to the interpretation of the law this judgment brought; the new challenges posed by this judgment; as well as some of the practicalities in op...

In this episode of Bestek, we discuss a very close topic to both of our research projects: sustainable public procurement. We look at this subject through the lens of the newly introduced European Green Deal and what changes it introduces. For dessert, we are ‘dishing’ about academic life after COVID 19. Will we still travel to conferences? If not, why might we miss it?

We continue the discussion about COVID-19 related issues. We consider how the issue of 'urgency' is interpreted, and at which point it cannot be relied upon anymore. Also, how are 'regular' procurements (meaning not healthcare-related) affected by the circumstances of COVID-19? We discuss how regular procurements that are still to be launched, procurements that are currently in the mids of the pro...

We critically discuss the Commission guidance on COVID-19 and public procurement and what we think are some of the challenges that contracting authorities face these days. Also, we discuss the approaches taken by some of the Member States to address the COVID 19. For the happy, fun dessert time, we chat about academic life and especially teaching online in these times.

In this Trailer, we explain why we did not open a restaurant, but in fact started a podcast on public procurement law, our love of food, and our milestones and struggles in academic life.