How
does public procurement impact the accessibility of the
built environment?
Public authorities should ensure that all infrastructure
and services available to the general public are accessible
for all, including to persons with disabilities. If accessibility
concerns for people with disabilities are not taken into
account from the onset, they can entail high costs later
on while in most cases, when planned in the development
of a project, their impact can be great.
Public authorities are responsible through public procurement
for the purchasing of goods, services and public works.
Local and regional authorities and public utilities regularly
purchase public works, such as improvements to the urban
environment, new public transport infrastructure, the construction
of new buildings, services such as food catering or cleaning;
and goods such as computers, office equipment or public
transport vehicles. These are all activities that have an
impact on the daily lives of persons with disabilities,
and that can make a dramatic change in their opportunities
to access to education, employment, culture and to participate
in society in general.
In addition public procurement is financed through taxes
paid by the community, including by persons with disabilities
and their families. It is not acceptable that public money
is not geared towards the public benefit; just as public
money should not be invested in goods and services that
impede people’s participation in the community. Therefore,
public authorities have a major tool at their disposal for
fighting discrimination faced by persons with disabilities.
Even if in some cases accessibility features might imply
greater costs they are likely to reduce other costs, such
as the cost of special services or employment benefits in
the long-term.
How do the new EU public procurement directives introduce
accessibility standards?
Public procurement rules are part of the competencies of
the European Union as they relate to the functioning of
the internal market. Two new European Union directives were
adopted in 2004 and are yet to be transposed in national
legislation in most of the countries concerned. These new
rules include a number of provisions that effect persons
with disabilities because social, and accessibility considerations
can be included into the different phases of the public
procurement directives.
When drawing up a call for tender, public authorities must
identify a number of characteristics which the product,
work or service will have to meet. Rules and an outline
of these characteristics are specified in the technical
specifications of a tender. In particular, the EU directives
refer specifically to technical specifications relating
to accessibility for disabled people and Design-for-All
requirements. These conditions must be established in the
call for tender. Companies who do not respect social legislation
(such as non-discrimination legislation) can be excluded
from a tender competition.
Social considerations such as accessibility (beyond legislative
requirements) can be taken into account in the final choice
of a tender. In practice public authorities can decide to
include accessibility as one of the award criteria, specified
in the call for tender, which will be used for the final
assessment of a bid, in addition to the price and economic
or other main technical aspects of the offer.
What was the process for getting these new directives adopted
and are there any lessons learned from this experience that
can be shared for advocates lobbying for the adoption of
similar standards?
EDF began to work on the issue as soon as a draft proposal
for legislation was put on the table in 2000 by the European
Commission, and managed to influence the decision makers:
the European Parliament and the Council of the European
Union which includes representatives of member States.
EDF understood quickly that in order to achieve success
it was important to work with a wide range of partners which
had similar concerns. In particular EDF was part of a coalition
including main environmental organizations such as Greenpeace
and World Wildlife Foundation, European Trade Unions, main
social NGOs such as Oxfam and fair trade organizations.
In fact EDF faced similar obstacles to the inclusion of
accessibility requirements that environmental organizations
were facing. This alliance was crucial in terms of political
influence and sharing of information. At the same time,
EDF always put disability issues high on the agenda so that
they were always on the table for discussion. Probably the
main mistake that EDF made was to become involved when a
draft had already been presented. Environmental organizations
were able to obtain much more as they lobbied consistently
at the drafting stage.
Have these directives made any impact on the accessibility
of the environment thus far and if so, how?
Only a minority of member States of the EU have transposed
the legislation in their national laws. While the deadline
was for the end of February 2006, an assessment of the implementation
of the laws has not yet been made. It is, therefore, too
early to measure the impact. It is also important that national
organizations monitor the issue closely with their finance
ministries in order to ensure that disability issues are
included.
EDF is also participating in a European project promoted
by the National Federation of Disabled People in Luxembourg
on defining accessibility requirements for public works
in construction called ‘Build-for-All’. This project is
being developed in partnership with the construction industry,
architects and the European network of cities and municipalities.
We hope that this will bring further awareness of the need
and ways to address accessibility issues in public procurement.
Further information can be found at www.build-for-all.net.
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