On 9 September 2026, the European Commission presented a proposal to reform the European public procurement framework, with the aim of making procedures simpler, more flexible and, at the same time, more strategic. The reform seeks to consolidate the current directives into a directly applicable regulation and to use the purchasing power of public authorities more effectively to achieve economic, social, environmental, innovation, security and resilience objectives.

One of the important changes proposed is to strengthen the best price-quality ratio principle, so that public procurement is no longer predominantly driven by the lowest price. The Commission proposal gives greater importance to quality criteria, including social and environmental criteria, which could create new opportunities for social enterprises and for economic operators that generate demonstrable social impact alongside economic value.

ADV Group and RISE România contribute to the European dialogue on responsible public procurement

For ADV Group and RISE Romania, this shift in paradigm confirms the direction they have supported in recent years: public money can and should generate goods, services and works, as well as social value for communities.

Through its participation in the European networks and initiatives Social Economy Europe, FEBEA, ENSIE, DIESIS and D-WISE, ADV Group and RISE have contributed feedback and proposals to discussions on reforming the European public procurement framework.

ENSIE’s contribution to the consultation on the European public procurement directives highlighted, among other issues, the insufficient use of reserved contracts under Article 20 of Directive 2014/24/EU, the prevalence of the lowest-price criterion, and the need to build the capacity of contracting authorities and social enterprises. The proposals include setting targets for the use of reserved contracts, using social impact indicators, and incentivising beneficiaries of European funds that commit to social, green or reserved procurement.

These directions are also important for Romania, where the legislative framework already allows reserved contracts to be used. Law no. 98/2016, through Article 56, allows contracting authorities to reserve participation in public procurement procedures for authorised protected units (UPA) and work integration social enterprises (ISI).

The challenge, therefore, is no longer simply the existence of a legal basis, but turning it into a mechanism that is systematically used by public authorities.

PROSECO: from policy analysis to developing an enabling ecosystem for social procurement

ADV Romania’s involvement in this process is further strengthened through the implementation of the European PROSECO project, in which the organisation analyses the public policy environment for social and responsible procurement and contributes to identifying the barriers and enabling factors that can support its use in Romania.

Within PROSECO, the analysis carried out by ADV Romania examines both the national public policy framework and the relevant instruments for implementing social procurement, with particular attention to dimensions such as visibility and awareness, the role of leadership and public administration, access to funding and resources, and institutional barriers or opportunities. It also considers broader transformations that influence public procurement, including the green and digital transitions, economic change and regional development disparities.

For ADV Romania, PROSECO therefore provides a concrete framework through which the experience accumulated in the social economy and in the development of work integration social enterprises can be connected with public policy, dialogue with authorities and European good practices in social procurement.

An important objective is to move from the existence of favourable legal provisions to their effective use: more procurement with social clauses, more reserved contracts, and better integration of social impact into the purchasing decisions of public authorities.

Dialogue with ANAP on a national plan for social and reserved procurement

In Romania, ADV Romania is engaged in dialogue with the National Agency for Public Procurement (ANAP) on developing a national plan for public procurement with social clauses and reserved procurement, including procurement aimed at authorised protected units and work integration social enterprises.

This direction is directly connected to the work carried out through PROSECO: identifying existing barriers must be followed by the development of tools that help contracting authorities make effective use of the possibilities provided by legislation.

For social procurement to become common practice rather than an exception, operational tools, sample procurement documents, measurable social criteria, training for procurement staff, impact-monitoring mechanisms and nationally agreed targets are needed.

Regulating the protected units sector and safeguarding social impact

ADV Romania is also in discussions with the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ANPDPD) on improving the regulatory framework applicable to authorised protected units.

The aim is to ensure that protected units participation in reserved procurement generates genuine social impact through economic activity in which persons with disabilities are effectively involved, rather than being reduced to simple commercial intermediation.

In this respect, European experience shows that socially responsible public procurement can be used to support the labour-market integration of people in vulnerable situations, while reserved contracts are one of the instruments available to public authorities for achieving this objective.

Social procurement proposed for the National Social Economy Strategy

ADV Romania, Ateliere fără Frontiere and RISE România have also advocated for the integration of socially responsible public procurement and reserved procurement into the future National Social Economy Strategy, which is currently being developed by the relevant ministry.

This integration is essential because the development of the social economy cannot depend exclusively on grants and temporary funding schemes. The sustainability of social enterprises also requires the development of markets for their products and services.

Public procurement can become one of these markets.

Instead of being viewed exclusively as beneficiaries of public support, social enterprises can become suppliers to the public sector, competing through the quality of the products and services they offer and through the social impact they generate.

UtilDeco: an example of how procurement can support labour-market integration

A concrete example within ADV Group is UtilDeco, a work integration social enterprise and authorised protected unit that demonstrates how economic activity can be connected with a social mission and the labour-market integration of people in vulnerable situations, including persons with disabilities.

For enterprises of this kind, the development of reserved procurement can mean more than access to contracts: it can generate jobs, economic stability, the development of professional skills and resources to continue the social mission.

At the same time, UtilDeco‘s practical experience enables ADV Romania to bring to the public policy dialogue the concrete perspective of a social enterprise that must participate effectively in the market and meet the requirements of both public and private clients.

AFIN IFN: financing complements access to the market

Access to contracts must, however, be matched by access to finance. Social enterprises frequently face cash-flow challenges and limited access to conventional financial instruments, which can prevent them from participating in larger contracts or financing the period between incurring expenditure and receiving payment on invoices.

Within this ecosystem, AFIN, a Romanian-owned non-bank financial institution created at the initiative of ADV Romania together with a community of shareholders, most of them social entrepreneurs, is a financial instrument dedicated, among other things, to the development of social enterprises.

The connection between PROSECO, social procurement, UtilDeco and AFIN highlights a broader perspective on the development of the social economy: social enterprises simultaneously need favourable public policies, access to markets, access to finance and organisational development tools.

From the lowest price to the greatest value for society

The European public procurement reform creates an opportunity for significant change in Romania as well.

Public procurement is an administrative mechanism through which institutions purchase products and services, and also an instrument through which the state can influence the economy and generate additional benefits for communities.

For ADV Romania, the implementation of PROSECO, participation in the European dialogue through social economy networks, cooperation with ANAP and ANPDPD, the contribution to the future National Social Economy Strategy, UtilDeco’s practical experience and the development of financing mechanisms through AFIN IFN are all part of the same vision: building an ecosystem in which public procurement becomes a genuine instrument for developing the social economy and integrating people in vulnerable situations into the labour market.

It is not about spending more. It is about obtaining greater economic, social and environmental value from the money we already spend. – Angela Achiței, Social entrepreneur & President of ADV Group and RISE România, Member of the National Social Economy Commission