The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group in the Committee of the Regions (CoR) met in Groningen, Netherlands to discuss public procurement and better EU regulation. ECR Group members called for public procurement, a market estimated to be more than €2 trillion, to become part of the EUs better regulation agenda and underlined that local and regional authorities needed to be treated as key partners in the better regulation process and not stakeholders.

Oldřich Vlasák (Councillor of the City of Hradec Kralove, ECR Group’s acting President) underlined that "the procurement market represents a potential of 2 trillion Euros of EU added-value. At a time when our citizens are increasing feeling disengaged with the EU, we cannot afford not to make public procurement part of our better regulation agenda."

The meeting brought together representatives of the different tiers of government and experts in the field. Speakers included Peter Van Dalen MEP (Member of the European Parliament), Malcolm Harbour (Chairman of the UK Local Government Association Working Group on Innovation in Public Procurement), Gordon Keymer (CoR rapporteur on better regulation), Drs Fenna Beekmans-Pols (Director of Europa Decentraal, member of the stakeholder group of the Regulatory Fitness Platform) and Prof Dr Mr Hans Vedder (Professor of Economic Law, Faculty of law, University of Groningen).

Rob Jonkman (Member of Executive Council of Opsterland, ECR Group Bureau member) said "today we saw that EU legislation is not achieving its intended results and the way to address that is to look at the local and regional bottlenecks. EU institutions need to be working more closely with us as local and regional government to help ensure EU legislation that is better designed to our communities needs."

The potential that innovation holds in helping deliver cheaper and more cost effective services to citizens was underlined as was the potential that public procurement rules can bring in helping drive sustainable and smart solutions.

Members underlined that while it was positive that the Committee of the Regions is a member of the stakeholder group of the European Commissions REFIT Platform, it was underlined that giving local and regional authorities a single seat in a Platform mainly composed of trade unions and social stakeholders did not do justice to the importance of local and regional authorities in achieving better regulation.

Henk Staghouwer (member of the Executive Council of the Province of Groningen) said "Local and regional authorities implement approximately 70% of EU legislation yet the Commission seems to think we should be put on an equal footing as non-governmental stakeholders. This needs to change".

Malcolm Harbour, former Chair of the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, underlined that the Commission had to take into account the enforcement angle. "If the Commission is serious about better regulation, then it must engage local authorities who are important in enforcing EU law." Giving the example of the sharing economy, Malcolm underlined that "yesterday’s Commission guidelines on the sharing economy recognises that things like AirBnB and Uber are coming under local government control. As the sharing economy develops, their role is going to become more important."