Third International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (CITC-III) “Advancing Engineering, Management and Technology” 15-17, September 2005, Athens Developing public private partnerships in Denmark –The role of construction firms in networked public services Martine Buser Research Assistant, Department for Civil Engineering, The Section for planning and management of building processes Technical University of Denmark, Denmark Christian Koch Associate Professor, Dep. for Civil Engineering, The Section for planning and management of building processes, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark. Abstract The establishment of private public partnerships in Denmark in relation to construction has been a long and reluctant process. A first wave of PPP arrangements started flourishing in Danish municipalities from the late nineties. Although a number of arrangements were established, the development was halted because of a scandal in one municipality in 2002. In the spring of 2004 however the government launched an action plan and PPP arrangements are now emerging. One central issue in the establishment PPP is how to develop a governmental metaframe, which is here viewed as an emergent process of networking, learning and establishing of institutions. Drawing on new public management perspectives, it is argued that the future model of public services is a network of a mixed set of players (private, voluntary and public). Such networks might be strong in combining forces and strength from these various sectors in producing present public services. The paper analyse the emergent network and the metaframe. Examples of Danish PPP are given highlighting the role of the construction firms. The experiences illustrate the importance of recognizing public private partnerships as emergent political arenas. Keywords: public private partnerships, municipalities, metagovernance, political processes, Denmark. 1. Introduction Public procurement represents 16,3% of the European Unions GDP and is an important factor in European Economy. An increasing number of European Countries have engaged in developing public private partnerships (PPP) as a means to develop the built environment element of the public services. Where the status just a few years back was that UK was the dominant market for PPP, this is now rapidly changing, and countries like Germany and Portugal are now embarking on a development, which earlier included Ireland, Holland, France, Italy and Denmark (EU 2004, 2005).