CO-RESP Declaration on the use of Socially Responsible Public Procurement (SRPP)
The “CO-RESP Social Economy Conference: Public Procurement with Added Value” organised as part of the EU-funded CO-RESP project and held in the partner city of Gleisdorf, Austria on 25 April 2023. The event brought together experts and stakeholders to discuss promising practices in creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities through public procurement.
As a result of this experience and the data collected, the CO-RESP project has developed a Declaration on the use of Socially Responsible Public Procurement (SRPP). The main objective of this document is to call on local authorities to make the most of the potential of SRPP as set out in the European Union's Public Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU, to generate employment opportunities for people with disabilities in the open labour market, promote social inclusion and sustainable growth at the local level.
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Public procurement is a mechanism of significant economic importance that accounted for around 14% of the European Union’s GDP in 2017 and it is also an important means of financing and developing sheltered workshops and social economy organisations, which employ a high number of persons with disabilities and support their transition to the open labour market. In this context, its overall economic impact coupled with the inclusion of social criteria in the process of awarding contracts, can contribute to transforming local economies into more sustainable and socially inclusive by stimulating the creation of job opportunities for disadvantaged groups.
Local and regional authorities as the first stage of political administration, play a key role in promoting the employment of persons with disabilities in accordance with the requirements of the UN CRPD – namely, quality jobs in open labour market, fair wages, equal benefits, opportunities for growth, etc. Contracting authorities must move from the basic considerations of best-value-for-money and give priority to social justice by following a socially responsible procurement model to achieve sustainable, social, environmental and equitable growth. This requires professionalisation of public administrators, strategic planning, communication and cooperation with the social economy and employers of people with disabilities.