Who will most benefit?
This Master Class is intended for policy-makers, public officials from national and sub-national administrations and other bodies awarding public contracts in EU Member States, candidate countries and beyond, from European institutions and organisations, and from international organisations based in the EU and for their professional advisers. It will particularly benefit those with a good understanding of public procurement issues who wish to improve their knowledge/skills in competitive dialogue and negotiated procedures and who wish discuss practical issues relevant to procurements in progress/about to be launched.

What is this course about?
Competitive dialogue and negotiated procedures are difficult to implement effectively but are essential for complex infrastructure projects and to modernise public services in the current fiscal climate. In the 2014 Public Procurement Directives competitive dialogue and the new competitive procedure with negotiation are easier to justify and thus likely to be more frequently used. There are also new rules for competitive dialogue and the procedural rules for the competitive procedure with negotiation are more detailed than the former rules of the negotiated procedure with prior publication. Competitive dialogue has also been introduced as an available procedure in the utilities sectors in Directive 2014/25/EU.

The many practical questions about the effective implementation of these procedures include, for example:

• When is competitive dialogue a better procurement route than the restricted procedure or the competitive procedure with negotiation?
• What justification will be needed for the use of competitive dialogue or the competitive procedure with negotiation in the new directives?
• What do awarding bodies need to do to plan the effective use of these procedures?
• How can awarding bodies best use the flexibility which the procedures provide?

Experience shows that not all methods of using competitive dialogue and negotiated procedures have so far been equally effective in promoting value for money for the public sector, and objective advice on when and how to use these procedures is hard to find. This master class will give you the opportunity to receive advice on your specific issues from our experts and to share the experience of others in the public sector.

Participants will receive a copy of the recent EIPA book ‘Competitive Dialogue and Negotiated Procedures – A Practical Guide’ (2nd edition), written by Michael Burnett and Martin Oder.

How will it help you?
The approach is based on a high degree of interactive discussion of practical issues faced by participants, allowing for maximum possible attention to individual cases. Numbers are limited to a maximum of 20 participants to facilitate discussion and maximise learning benefits.