SMEs
SMEs are the driving force behind innovation. As from 2010 a large part of the government purchases in the EU must take place according to sustainability criteria. This is the consequence of political decision-making. A great opportunity to put SMEs back in government business therefore. European tenders are still much too much a game of the big boys. The companies with professional tender desks, which for every invitation to tender decorate super-fast a project team that is able to produce a potentially winning tender within the deadline of generally a week or six .
With some aid a SME could manage this too. But another obstacle is that governments lay down too high thresholds in the form of selection criteria with high turnover requirements concerning the past, where small businesses have difficulty to fulfil. This is frequently contrary to tendering law. A sometimes forgotten head principle of tendering law is the proportionality requirement. A tendering authority may not set requirements that are harsher than strictly necessary. Two smaller companies can also cooperate for a specific invitation to tender and by this meet to the requirements of scale size which has been put.CSR requirements
The challenge for the coming years is to fill the sustainability need of governments in an innovative manner. For governments the sustainability question in tenders can be solved by a correct mix of sustainability requirements and wishes taken along in their invitations to tender. It is also important that companies can meet this criteria in a particular tender. Nobody gets happy if tenders evolve into a ritual dance. Governments which adhere to corporate social responsibility (CSR) only because the politicians thus have decided and company that join the dance just because they risk losing money. Then we risk to get stuck just in exchanging certificates and rhetoric. That would be a giant missed opportunity on both sides. Sustainability means, beside satisfying environmental and social criteria, also a better quality. This raises the competitiveness of companies. At the same time it increases the performance of the governments in the implementation of their tasks. Just then CSR has real added value.