As a follow-up to a recent EU Private Security Roundtable organised by the Belgian government, the representative associations of the private security industry at EU- and Belgian level make recommendations for a reinforced dialogue between national regulatory authorities and the private security services industry at EU-level.

A central concern of the two associations is, as highlighted in the Statement, a revision of the EU Public Procurement Directive 2014/24. Both CoESS and APEG-BVBO underline in their Statement that from the view of the private security industry, inappropriate public procurement practices present a key challenge to the sustainability of an essential service to European citizens and ultimately public security. They highlight that the vast majority of public tenders in the EU are still awarded solely on the basis of lowest cost or price ignoring social aspects such as providers’ compliance with Collective Agreements, even when buying essential services like private security. CoESS and APEG-BVBO therefore request the Belgian EU Council Presidency’s support for the inclusion of a revision of the Public Procurement Directive 2014/24 in the next European Commission Work Programme.

The full Joint Statement can be found here.