#49: Should Defence Contracts Be Allowed to Skip the Normal Rules?
Host Dr Marta Andhov presents an aperitif episode of the Bestek public procurement podcast, featuring the first half of the “Contracts in the Defence and Security Sector” panel from the PurpLE Project’s Public Procurement & Contracts Conference in Copenhagen (22–23 June 2026), moderated by Associate Professor Michał Kania (University of Silesia in Katowice).
The discussion asks whether defence contracts should be allowed to skip the normal procurement rules through the Article 346 exemption in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and whether the legal test meant to keep that exemption narrow is still holding up.
22 Oct 2026
#48: If a Government Breaks Procurement Rules, What Can a Bidder Actually Do?
Host Dr Marta Andhov presents an aperitif episode of the Bestek public procurement podcast, featuring clips from “Remedial Systems in Public Contracts Law vs Non-Legislative Measures”, a panel she chaired at the Public Procurement & Contracts Conference in Copenhagen (PurpLE Project, 22–23 June 2026).
The episode asks what a bidder can do when a public authority breaks its own procurement rules. It compares Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, whose rules follow the UK model from before the EU directives, with France and the francophone African countries that followed the French model.
22 Oct 2026
#47: You Write Sustainability Into the Contract. Does Anyone Actually Check?
Host Dr Marta Andhov presents an aperitif episode of the Bestek public procurement podcast, featuring excerpts from the “Sustainability in Performance of Public Contracts” panel, moderated by Dr Ezgi Uysal (PurpLE postdoctoral researcher, University of Copenhagen), at the Public Procurement & Contracts Conference hosted by the PurpLE Project in Copenhagen (22–23 June 2026).
The episode asks what happens after sustainability is written into a public contract, whether as environmental criteria, social clauses or ESG language: at the performance stage, does anyone enforce, audit or check it? Marta’s answer is “not yet”, but the panel sets out what checking would take.
Panellists Professor Sope Williams (Stellenbosch University; George Washington University), Professor Gustavo Piga (University of Rome Tor Vergata), Associate Professor Helen Yu (Swansea University), and Assistant Professor Désirée Klingler (University of St. Gallen) discuss why a sustainability clause binds once it is in the contract, whether voluntary or mandatory; South Africa’s Medupi and Kusile power stations and why vague “best efforts” wording cannot be enforced; the trade-offs behind Sardinia’s wind turbines; Swiss data showing how little changed after the law did; and the UK’s Procurement Act 2023 and new NHS value-based procurement guidance for medical technology, which sets a minimum weighting for social value in tender scoring.
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