This is an excerpt from the EDF (European Disability Forum) newsletter
about public procurement developments in Norway.

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NORWAY - New proposal for Norwegian legislation on public procurement:
demanding universal design!
On 12 April, the Norwegian Ministry of Modernisation proposed amendments
to the current national legislation for public procurement. According to
the draft legislation, public authorities on local, regional and
national levels are obliged to include universal design as one of the
criteria when planning public procurement of goods and services.

Today's legislation is regarded as complicated and the proposed
amendments are to simplify the rules. The threshold for using public
procurement is raised from EUR 25 000 to EUR 62 500. Electronic
procurements are also included on an equal level with other types of
public procurement in the new legislation in order to strengthen
eCommerce.

However, one of the main innovations is that both in the legislation
itself and in the technical annexes explicit reference is given to
universal design, or Design-for-All. This is to use the legislation as a
tool to achieve accessibility for disabled people in society.

In its action plan for increased accessibility for disabled people the
Government has decided that the principle of universal design is to be
made visible in national legislation on public procurement. This is why
the principle is to be included both in the legislation and in the
annexes on public procurement, implying that all public authorities
responsible for public procurement are to consider universal design as
part of their planning processes.

The Delta Centre, which is the National Resource Centre for
Participation and Accessibility in Norway, is leading a project to
produce a guideline on universal design in public procurement, and how
both EU and Norwegian legislation can be use as a tool to achieve the
objective of accessibility for all. The guideline will be a toolkit for
public authorities as well as others on all administrative levels. The
project involves both public authorities and organisations of disabled
people in Norway.

For more information on this, please contact the Delta Centre through
adviser, Mr. Rudolph Brynn, E-mail rbr@..., Tel. +47 24 16 35 39.

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