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External Seminars and Lectures

PPRG members are frequent contributors to a number of conferences and seminars both at home and overseas.

2009

Baudouin Heuninckx delivered one of the keynote addresses at the UK MoD Defence Suppliers Service Annual Conference & Exhibition 2009, titled "Enabling Procurement Through Collaboration", on 26th February 2009 in the Bristol Thistle Hotel.

For more details on the conference, click here.

Sue Arrowsmith presented at a one-day conference on framework agreements under EU rules on  March 25th 2009 and at a "competitive dialogue" conference on April 29th 2009. Both events were organized by Achilles Information Ltd.

Dr Aris Georgopoulos was invited speaker at the conference Building Integrity and Reducing Corruption in Security Sector organized by Racviac-Centre of Security Cooperation, 18-20 May, Zagreb, Croatia. Dr Georgopoulos Gave a presentation entitled “European Defense Procurement: Countering Corruption Through Procurement Regulation?”

Sope Williams-Elegbe presented two papers at the 3rd International Anti-Corruption Summer School in Hernstein, Austria on the 17th July 2009.  She presented on "International Cooperation in Fighting Corruption" which examined the cooperation in the fight against corruption through international agreements and between international organisations. Her second paper on "The limitations of penal mechanisms to fight corruption in public procurement" examined the shortcomings of criminal sanctions and blacklisting measures as anti-corruption tools and suggested alternative methods of fighting procurement corruption.

Dr Aris Georgopoulos was invited speaker at the "Global Financial Reform: International Law Intersecting the New World Economy", International Conference organised by Thomas M. Cooley School of Law, on 9 October 2009 in Michigan. Dr Georgopoulos spoke on the topic of concepts of mutual assistance in procurement and avoidance of a trade war in the light of the United States Government Procurement policy.

Dr Aris Georgopoulos gave a seminar at the Law School of the University of Michigan on the topic "Conceptualising the tension between national public procurement policy interests and supranational defence interests", on 14 October in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

On October 15, Professor Sue Arrowsmith  presented several key topics at the next Achilles conference on new developments in procurement law, along with contributions from, inter alia, the OGC and Susie Smith of Bevan Brittan LLP.

Professor Sue Arrowsmith again spoke at the Annual Nordic Conference on Public Procurement on 27th-28th October 2009 in Copenhagen. Her presentations covered remedies, social and environmental policies and award criteria, focusing on new developments.

Dr Aris Georgopoulos was invited panellist at the National Contract Management Association conference in Bethesda, Maryland on 5 November 2009. His discussion covered the international trade implications that the Obama Administration's Recovery Act is likely to have on transatlantic public procurement trade.

Following a number of previous sell-out events, Sue Arrowsmith again spoke at a further conference examining the application of the EU and UK procurement rules on competitive dialogue was held in London on 11 November 2009. The conference involved presentations on the legal and practical issues as well as case studies in small groups.

Baudouin Heuninckx spoke at the Advanced Conference on Defence & Security Procurement on 17-18 November 2009 in Brussels.

Baudouin Heuninckx spoke on 23-24 November 2009 at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) conference on European Defence Procurement in Maastricht, on the topic of collaborative defence procurement.

2008

On the 29th of January 2008 Sue Arrowsmith led a one-day conference/workshop on competitive dialogue in central London. 

This conference gave a comprehensive analysis of the current issues and developments surrounding competitive dialogue, including the new guidance from the Office of Government Commerce, which will be published shortly. Subjects covered included:

• When can competitive dialogue be used under the legal rules?
• How it is used and when should it be used in practice?
• Operating the procedure and what to consider.
• Confidentiality of bidder information and solutions.

The event also includes participation from Susie Smith of Bevan Brittan LLP, Glenn Fletcher of Achilles Information, and Matt Wynne of the Office of Government Commerce, who will elaborate on UK experience so far and on the government's new guidance.

On the 15th of February 2008, Sope Williams presented a paper at the First Annual General Meeting of the East African Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (EAAACA) in Zanzibar.  Her paper focused on the challenges of fighting corruption in Africa and some of the solutions to these challenges.

Professor Sue Arrowsmith spoke at a further conference on framework agreements in London on February 27 2008.

This was the fourth event in a very successful sell out series of conferences on this subject run in London by Achilles Information. The conference included both lecture sessions and case study workshops that allowed delegates to apply their knowledge and to exchange experiences with others working in the field.

Professor Sue Arrowsmith gave the key-note speech at the Inaugural Conference of the Caribbean Procurement Institute in Trinidad – an event that also provided the forum for developing a new Caribbean Association of Procurement Professionals (CAPP).  This highly successful conference, which attracted around 200 delegates from throughout the Caribbean, took place on March 19th-20th at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad. Speakers and delegates included key figures from government, practice and academia.

Professor Arrowsmith’s keynote speech considered the role in both public procurement reform and public procurement harmonisation of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Procurement of Goods, Construction and Services. She also gave a further short talk at a plenary session on different options for developing a national supplier remedy or complaints procedure. In addition, she contributed two papers to the conference’s parallel workshop sessions on Day 2, which dealt with the practical, as opposed to legal, aspects of public procurement. These papers focused on the use of eAuctions in public procurement and on the use of public procurement to promote social and industrial development, particularly of the small business sector.

Other speakers/presenters at the event included The Honourable Ambassador Lolita Applewaithe, CARICOM Deputy Secretary General; Sebator Helen Drayton, Chairman of the Caribbean Procurement Association; the Honourable Karen Nunez Tesheira, Minister of Trade and Industry of Trinidad and Tobago; the Honourable Dr Keith Rowley, Minister of Trade and Industry of Trinidad and Tobago; and Karl Hudson-Phillips, QC.

The occasion also provided the opportunity for a valuable new initiative to develop a Caribbean Association of Procurement Professionals (CAPP). This final part of the event was introduced by a presentation from Charles Holden, Director General of the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management, on the importance of professional and recognition for procurement professionals and the value of such associations.

Dr Ping Wang gave a presentation entitled "Emerging Market of China" at the Achilles Global User Conference 2008, held in London on the 9th and 10th April 2008. The conference, called "Managing your Supply Chain and Sustainable Procurement", was organized by Achilles Group Ltd., a sponsor of PPRG. The themes for the conference included managing risk in supply chain, sustainable procurement in action and managing suppliers in a global marketplace.

To view the complete conference schedule, click here.

Delegates from the procurement profession, law and government gathered on the 24th of April in London at another sell-out event focusing on competitive dialogue, led by Professor Sue Arrowsmith and by Susie Smith of Bevan Brittan.

As well as listening to presentations on the legal and practical aspects of competiive dialogue, the delegates participated in practical case studies on the use and operation of the new procedure in compliance with the legal rules. The event also featured an interesting presentation by Matthew Wynne of the OGC on the forthcoming government guidance on competitive dialogue, which draws on the experience of UK contracting authorities so far. This eagerly-awaited guidance is expected to be published some time in May 2008.

Dr. Ping Wang spoke on scope and coverage of the WTO Government Procurement Agreeement (GPA) and challenges in China's GPA accession during EU-China Dialogue on Government Procurement, a several day long event which was held in Beijing and Shanghai on 24-28 April.

For a more detailed schedule of the event, click here (Beijing) or here (Shanghai).

Dr. Ping Wang ran a 3 day workshop organized by the Chinese Mininstry of Finance on various aspects of the WTO Government Procurement Agreeement in Beijing on 13-16 May 2008.

Baudouin Heuninckx and Dr. Aris Georgopoulos spoke on 19 May 2008 at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) conference on European Defence Procurement and Other Defence Market Initiatives, in Maastricht, the Netherlands.  Baudouin presented on the topic of “Assessment of the European legal framework for defence procurement” on 19 May 2008. The conference was attended by about forty practitioners from the EU Member States, the European industry, the Commission, and the European Defence Agency (EDA). The presentation was well-received, and the participants showed a particular interest in the latest developments of the EDA, even though the participants from the EDA seemed sensitive about comments on their work. The participants from the EU Member States showed a particular sensitivity towards offsets, generally rejecting the idea that offsets were economically inefficient if one looked, not only at the procurement activity for which offsets were requested, but also at the whole economic impact of the offsets, especially is such offsets were carefully managed.

Baudouin Heuninckx spoke at the IQPC Military Aviation Repair and Maintenance 2008 conference in London on the topic of “Collaborative Procurement and Through Life Management” on 20 May 2008. His presentation was heavily inspired by his recent PPLR article on collaborative defence procurement. The conference was attended by about eighty delegates from the armed forces and civil service of the EU Member States and the US (up to the rank of colonel), as well as by representatives from the European and American defence industry. The presentation was well received, and the participants did not seem to exhibit the distrust of collaborative procurement that is often encountered. On the contrary, the comments made showed a clear understanding on the need for more collaboration in defence procurement amongst European and North American States. Interestingly enough, most military participants advocated cost-effectiveness in through life support procurement and the allocation of work based on efficiency criteria, and not on offset requirements, in contrast to the attitude exhibited at the conference at which Baudouin Heuninckx spoke the day before. This might be due to the fact that the participants to this conference were the actual managers of in-service support budgets, for whom offsets are often a secondary matter.

"Weighing Knowledge/Intelligence for Competitive Advantage" was the theme of the next CIPS Centre for Procurement Leadership Strategic Forum which was held in St Albans on June 3-4th.  Professor Sue Arrowsmith - who has recently been appointed a Foundation Professor of CIPS - contributed a session on June 4th in which she discussed with delegates the gathering and deployment of legal information to gain advantage for an organisation. 

On June 5th 2008, Dr Annamaria La Chimia gave a lecture on "Tied and Untied Assistance and Tied and Untied Food Aid" as part of the Master in Human Development and Food Security at University of Roma Tre. The Master Programme on Human Development and Food Security in Rome is a highly prestigious degree.  Candidates undertaking the degree benefit from having the foremost experts in the field of human development and food security from all over the world as guest speakers. The degree is undertaken by highly qualified (international) postgraduate students as well as officials of international organisations and members of NGOs. 

Professor Sue Arrowsmith and Sean Hennigan contributed presentations to "Competitive Dialogue in Practice", a unique one-day event held in London on June 26th. The event was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), supported by the PPRG, and hosted by Bevan Brittan LLP at their London offices.Speakers from both the UK and the EU attended the event to voice their opinions on the practical experiences both the private and the public sector have had to date in trying to apply the competitive dialogue procedure.  The event was attended by legal and purchasing professionals as well as academics and consultants, and provided a very interesting overview of how different sectors of government (from local to supranational at the EC level) envision and experience purchasing using the competitive dialogue procedure.  Professor Arrowsmith contributed an overview of interesting new legal developments that influence the procedure, while Sean Hennigan presented the focus of his research into the use of competitive dialogue for PFI/PPP projects.

Dr. Annamaria La Chimia presented at the conference "After the First 50 Years: the Future of European Law and Policy", held in Birmingham on the 3rd and 4th of July 2008.  The title of her paper was "EU foreign aid resources and public procurement". 

Dr Annamaria La Chimia participated in the UACES annual conference "Exchanging Ideas on Europe 2008: rethinking the European Union", which took place in Edinburgh on 1-3 September. She contributed a paper entitled "Developing Coherence before Aid: EC Treaty Rules and Development Aid at Community and Bilateral Level".

On the 3rd of September a day of lectures on Introduction to Public Procurement Regulation was at University of Malaya for participants from University of Malaya and other Malaysian Universities. Dr Aris Georgopoulos (University of Nottingham), Assistant Professor Hendrik Anderson and Associate Professor Christina Tvarno (Copenhagen Business School) each presented a paper. Mr. Abdul Azahari Aziz (senior lecturer at MARA) was invited to present a session on Public Procurement Regulation in Malaysia. Professor Cao Fuguo from CUFE presented on on Public Procurement Regulation in China.

The public procurement regulation workshop was followed on the 4th of September by a workshop in Legal Research Methods, hosted by by Dr Ezra Hasson of the University of Nottingham's School of Law.

Both workshops were at tremendous success; they were attended by procurement professionals from the Malaysian government, academics interested in procurement law, as well as academics interested in business and economics from various parts of Malaysia.  Asia Link partners were represented by both speakers and, in the case of CUFE, attendees to the workshops.

Dr Annamaria La Chimia took part in the 3rd Biennial Conference of the European Society of International Law, "International law in a Heterogeneous World", held in Heidelberg on September 4-6, 2008.  She was a panelist on Forum 7, and presented a paper entitled "Achieving the MDGs: Enhancing aid effectiveness through the legal framework for international trade."

Sue Arrowsmith again spoke at the Nohr Con Annual Nordic Public Procurement conference, which was held this year on 22-23 September at the First Hotel Ski Petri in Copenhagen.

She presented papers on Socially Responsible Procurement, Framework Agreements, and New Developments in
EU Procurement Law.

Due to overwhelming demand and the rapid sell-out of two earlier events this year, Professor Sue Arrowsmith led a third event on operating competitive dialogue for Achilles on the 7th October 2008 in London.

The event took the form of a repeat of  two earlier events on this subject: it involved presentations on the legal rules and practical strategies from Professor Sue Arrowsmith and from Susie Smith of Bevan Brittan, and two practical case studies examining the operation of the procedure, with delegates operating in small groups containing a mix of lawyers and procurement professionals. There was also a presentation by Matthew Wynne of the Office of Government Commerce on the new guidance on competitive dialogue.

Sue Arrowsmith, along with the OGC and other speakers from industry, presented at a conference in London on November 11th 2008 reviewing new developments under the EC procurement directives.  The conference, which was organised by Achilles Information Ltd, will cover both the public sector and utilities.

Conference topics included:new rules and proposals on supplier remedies; recent case law from EC and UK courts, including on permitted award criteria, disclosure of scoring systems, de-briefing requirements and treatment of incumbent suppliers; social and environmental considerations; the new competitive dialogue procedure: legal grey areas and practical issues; shared service models; European Commission proposals for new legislation: PPPs and defence procurement.

Baudouin Heuninckx spoke on 20 November 2008 at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) conference on European Defence Procurement in Maastricht, the Netherlands, on the topic “Collaborative Defence Procurement: Challenges and Possibilities”. The conference was attended by about fifty delegates from the EU Member States and institutions. The conference also featured presentations by the European Defence Agency, the European Commission and the European Parliament on the latest and future developments of defence procurement law in Europe. The conference showed a keen interest in all issues of defence procurement, with the new defence procurement directive and collaborative procurement being important topics of discussion.

2007 External Presentations:

 Dr Aris Georgopoulos at the EGPL annual reunion with the Rt Hon. Lord Justice Laws and other panellists in 2007

• Professor Sue Arrowsmith, "Operating Framework Agreements under the EC procurement Rules", London, June 5, 2007

• Dr Aris Georgopoulos, " Public Procurement in the Defence Sector", Recent Developments in Public Procurement Law, Academy of European Law (Europäische Rechtsacademie), Trier, Germany, June 1, 2007

• Dr Aris Georgopoulos, "EU Defence Procurement Integration: An Examination of Article 296 EC in the light of the European Court of Justice’s Case-law and its Impact on Current Initiatives in this Field", International Symposium: Developing Trends in Public Procurement and Auditing, European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands, May 16, 2007

• Baudouin Heuninckx, “The A400M Scheduled Maintenance Programme Definition: Contractual and Regulatory Provisions”, Military Aviation Repair and Maintenance 2007, London, April 25, 2007

• Dr Aris Georgopoulos, "Defence Offsets Policies within the EU and Article 296 EC: Are They Compatible?" , SMI International Offsets Conference 2007, London, 21 March 2007

• Sope Williams, "Corruption in Business: Government Relations and Procurement", Chevening Programme on Responsible Business, University of Nottingham Business School, 20 March 2007 

List of external presentations 2002-2006:

• Sue Arrowsmith, "Key Changes to the New Public sector Directive; Social and Environmental Issues; Revisions to the Remedies Directive", three presentations to conference New Developments in EC Procurement in London, November 2006

• Sue Arrowsmith, “Corporate Social Responsibility under the Utilities Procurement Rules”; presentation to Utilities Live Conference, Stoneleigh, September 2006

• Sue Arrowsmith, "Public Procurement as a Domestic Policy Tool; Domestic Review Procedures; and Reflections on Aligning Multilateral, Regional and Domestic Procurement Rules", three presentations to WTO Workshop on the Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO workshop for trade negotiators), Geneva, June 2006.

• Sue Arrowsmith, “The Past and Future Evolution of EC Procurement Law: from Framework to Common Code?”, presentation to conference “Government Contracts: Year in Review”, Washington DC, February 2006

• Sue Arrowsmith, "Competitive Dialogue and Negotiated Procedure, and Framework Agreements", presentations to conference on The New EC Procurement Directives, Stockholm, January 2006

• Sue Arrowsmith, "Framework Agreements: the Rules in the new EC Procurement Directives", lecture to conference on Framework Agreements, London, December 2005

• Sue Arrowsmith, "The New EC Procurement Directives: Key Changes; seminar presentation at conference on The New EC Procurement Directives, Herbert Smith, London, November 2005

• Sue Arrowsmith, "The EC’s Strategy on Remedies in Public Procurement in Light of the Alcatel Case: a UK Perspective", paper to conference on Remedies in Public Procurement, hosted by the State Commission for Public Procurement of Croatia, Zagreb, November 2005

• Sue Arrowsmith,Electronic Auctions under the New EC Procurement Directives; paper at conference on Electronic Auctions in the Public Sector, Lovells, London, October 2005

• Sue Arrowsmith, Presentations on “Competitive dialogue and negotiated procedures”, “Key changes to contract award procedures” and “Framework agreements”, to conference at University of Iceland, April 2005

• Sue Arrowsmith, “The UK perspective on Competitive Dialogue”; presentation to conference of the Public Procurement Network, Slovenia, March 2005

• Sue Arrowsmith, “The New EC Procurement Directives; lecture to seminar on New Issues in Procurement; organised by Denton Wilde Sapte, London, February 2004

• Sue Arrowsmith, Presenter at workshop on public procurement of the WTO in Accra, Ghana, June 2004 for Anglophone countries of Africa, with presentations on issues including social policies in public procurement, and enforcement of public procurement rules.

• Sue Arrowsmith, New legislation on utilities procurement; presentation to “UVDB Live” conference, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, May 2004

• Sue Arrowsmith, New Developments in EU Procurement Law; lectures to conference on New Developments in EU Public Sector Procurement Law, London, Sept 2004

• Sue Arrowsmith, New Developments in EU Procurement Law; lectures to conference on New Developments in EU Utilities Procurement Law, London, Oct 2004

• Sue Arrowsmith, “Negotiated procedures and PFI contracts”, “The implications of the ECJ decision in Concordia Buses” and “New case law on public sector procurement”; Conference on New Developments in EU procurement Law, London, January 2003 (lectures)

• Sue Arrowsmith, “Developments in European Law on Utilities Procurement”; “UVDB Live” - conference and exhibition on utilities procurement, Olympia, London, February 2003 (presentation at plenary session)

• Sue Arrowsmith, “Development of the EU Procurement Rules by the ECJ”; seminar to British Chamber of Commerce, Brussels, April 2003

• Sue Arrowsmith, New Developments in EU Procurement Law; lectures to conference on New Developments in EU Procurement Law, London, April 2003

• Sue Arrowsmith, The Impact of Public Law on Concluded Contracts; presentation to seminar on Judicial Review of Contracts, organised by Cambridge Centre for Public Law, London, May 2003

• Sue Arrowsmith, “Electronic reverse auctions under the EC public procurement rules”; presentation seminar organised by Achilles Information Ltd, Birmingham, July 2003.

• Sue Arrowsmith, “New Developments in EC Procurement Law”; lectures to conference on New Developments in EU Procurement Law, London, September 2003

• Sue Arrowsmith, “Implications of the EU Procurement Directives for Electronic Auctions in the Utilities Sectors”; conference on electronic auctions in the utility sectors; Birmingham, April 2002 (lecture)

• Sue Arrowsmith, “New Developments in EU Procurement Law”; Conference on EU procurement law, London, June 2002

• Sue Arrowsmith, “The draft Public Procurement Law of the Russian Federation: Legal and Strategic Issues in Light of International Standards for Public Procurement”; seminar delivered to policy makers and officials of the Russian Federation; ILO Training Centre, Turin, May 2002

• Annamaria La Chimia, l'esternalizzazione, il caso inglese: un esempio per la realta' italiana (?). In L'esternalizzazioni delle gestioni amministrative convegno di studi. 24 November 2006 Siena

• Annamaria La Chimia, Aid Procurement: an analysis of the EC and WTO Law. In Public Procurement "Global Revolution III" Conference, Nottingham, UK, 19-20 June 2006

• Annamaria La Chimia, The European Legal Framework and tied aid. In PhD students network on EU law. 15 June 2006 Birmingham

• Annamaria La Chimia, “The Practice of Tying Aid from the Perspective of the European Union: Impact and Compatibility with Public Procurement Rules” 2nd Research Students Public Procurement Conference, 19-20 June 2003 Public Procurement Research Group, University of Nottingham School of Law

• Baudouin Heuninckx, “Availability Improvements in New Transport Aircraft: The Case of the A400M”, NATO Research and Technology Organisation AVT-144 Conference, Vilnius, October 4, 2006

• Baudouin Heuninckx, “Effective Logistic Support for Current and Future Defence Acquisition Programmes”, Defence Logistics 2006 Conference, Brussels, June 22, 2006

• Baudouin Heuninckx, “Impact of European Community Law on Military Aviation Contracting”, Military Aviation Repair and Maintenance 2006 Conference, London, April 24, 2006

• Aris Georgopoulos, “An evaluation of the recent initiatives of the European Commission and the Council of Ministers for enhancing competition in the European Defence Market” international conference Public Procurement: Global Revolution III  20 June 2006, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

• Aris Georgopoulos, “Public Procurement in the Defence Sector: Competition despite Article 296 EC?”, Academy of European Law (Europäische Rechtsakademie), 10 June 2005, Trier, Germany

• Aris Georgopoulos, “The Changing Legal and Institutional Framework of Armaments Integration/Cooperation in Europe” the Cicero Foundation, 8-9 December 2005, Paris, France.

• Aris Georgopoulos,“European Security and Defence Policy and European Constitution” 13th International Conference on European Studies, Centre of European Studies, Havana, Cuba 2005

• Aris Georgopoulos, ‘The European Constitutional Treaty: A Preliminary Assessment of its Potential Impact on EU-NATO Relations’ 4th Annual Conference Transatlantic Studies Association, Nottingham 2005.

• Aris Georgopoulos, “European defence procurement market, a Chimera? Views on the Future of European Defence Procurement Integration” presentation  at the 6th European Community Studies Association (ECSA) biennial Conference, “A Constitution for Europe? Governance and Policy making in the European Union”, Montreal, Canada, 2004.

• Aris Georgopoulos, “The Future of the European Defence Market" paper presented at the conference organised by the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES), Sheffield, 2002.

• Sope Williams, “Procurement, the World Bank and Corruption”, Public Procurement Research Group Annual Seminar Series, University of Nottingham, 7 November 2006.

• Sope Williams, “Mandatory exclusions for corruption in the EU”, The Economics of Corruption Seminars, University of Passau, Germany, 11 October 2006.

• Sope Williams, “Risks of Corruption and Risks of Fighting Corruption in EC Public Procurement”, Corruption Risks and the Risks of Fighting Corruption Seminar, Centre for the Study of European Governance, University of Nottingham, 17 July 2006.

• Sope Williams, “The use of exclusions in developing country procurement”, Public Procurement: Global Revolution III Conference, University of Nottingham, 20 June 2006.

• Sope Williams, “Public Procurement and Corruption: The South African Response” Faculty Staff Seminar, University of Cape Town, 25 May 2006.

• Sope Williams, " Corruption Control and Procurement Law", Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference, The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, 9 September 2005.