The declaration was adopted in Luxembourg, 15 May 2025 on the occasion of the conference Architects + Engineers: Partnership for Resilient Design organised by ACE, EFCA, ECEC and OAI representing almost
1.5 million architects and consulting engineers in Europe.
In recent years, the New European Bauhaus (NEB) has sparked greater political recognition of the positive impact that a high-quality built environment has on society. While the initiative invites us collectively to reimagine our living spaces, it also promotes greater collaboration between stakeholders in the buildings and construction sector, rightly emphasising that a transdisciplinary approach is a prerequisite for high quality places.
The procurement phase is crucial in a construction project's lifecycle, as the choice of procedure, its characteristics, and the project briet greatly influence the design and construction works and the ultimate quality of what is built.
In the spirit of the NEB, and while the European Union is embarking on a modernisation of the Public Procurement Directive (PPD), we, the representative organisations of the architectural and consulting engineering professions, call for the following revisions to the PPD:
The Declaration captures the joint vision and policy recommendations from the architectural and engineering sectors to
- Strengthen the internal market with overarching public procurement rules that go beyond lowest price
- Provide for better recognition of the specific nature of intellectual services
- Ensure quality- and innovation-oriented procurement procedures
- Improve access to procurement for SMEs and new entrants
The declaration can be downloaded here - LINK TO THE DECLARATION (full text)