4. Access to public markets

Public authorities at federal and regional levels have become particularly interested in social enterprise as a tool to fulfil their goals. Overall, thanks to the federal regulation and the supporting measures developed by the regions, the use of social and environmental clauses in public procurement is well developed in Belgium and leads to public authorities being an important client for social enterprises. In many cases, public contracts have gradually replaced public subsidies (Huybrechts & Nyssens 2020).

The Belgian legislation allows for the inclusion of social, environmental and ethical clauses in public procurement. A federal decision (circulaire) dating of 2014 specifies the different schemes and avenues through which this can be achieved in practice. Thanks to this evolution, local, regional and federal public authorities have been authorized to require the compliance with a number of social and environmental criteria. In most cases, social enterprises are indirectly encouraged but the contract remains open to any type of provider including conventional enterprises. In some cases, however, contracts can be reserved for certain types of organisations, thereby directly favouring social enterprises (typically WISEs) (Huybrechts & Nyssens 2020).

The EU Directive 2014/24/EU has been transposed into federal law since 2017. According to the most recent data (Belgium 2018):

• at least 15 federal services have reserved public contracts to WISEs, for a total amount of more than 1 million EUR (2016).
• at least 98 public contracts were reserved for WISEs (2017).

In Wallonia, local authorities are encouraged to orient public procurement in a more sustainable way. Social, environmental and ethical clauses can be integrated in the definition of the public call for tenders, in the technical requirements, in the selection and attribution criteria. Several documents and facilitation tools have been proposed to both local authorities and social enterprises to facilitate this process. “Social clause facilitators” have also helped local authorities to introduce social clauses (training, sub-contracting to social enterprises, etc.) within construction contracts (Huybrechts & Nyssens 2020).

According to the most recent data (Belgium 2018):

• In 2017, the Belgian Public Building Authority has introduced social clauses in contracts exceeding 1.5 million EUR. In 2017, 8 contracts with these clauses were tested for buildings in Wallonia.
• In Wallonia, local authorities tendered 124 public contracts containing a social clause (2017).