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The Network for Sustainable Development in Public Procurement (NSDPP) welcomes the new rules affecting public procurement and concessions contracts between public authorities and businesses recently approved by the European Parliament. The new rules will allow public authorities in Europe to make true sustainable choices and spend taxpayer's money wisely. 

The new provisions affirm that contracting authorities may introduce social and environmental considerations throughout the procurement process as long as these are linked to the subject matter of the contract. Additionally, public authorities can differentiate what they purchase on the basis of the process and production methods that are not visible in the final product. It will be easier for them to rely on labels and certifications as a means to proof compliance with the sustainability criteria they have set.

Members of the NSDPP welcome this particular aspect as it will enable public authorities, if they so wish, to give preference to bidders that offer better working conditions to their workers, favour the integration of disabled and disadvantaged workers, and offer sustainably produced goods.

Compliance with environmental, social and labour obligations, including collective agreements, is now enshrined in the principles of the Directives and there is the possibility that tenderers can be excluded in case of non-compliance. The new provisions allow the identification of subcontractors along the supply chain. Regrettably the establishment of their joint liability is the responsibility of national authorities and the European trade union movement will warn national members to carefully monitor the legal transposition of the Directives as it will define the extent to which contracts will include clauses of joint liability over the subcontracting chain.

Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary said: “UNI Europa and the Property Services sector in particular, will closely follow the transposition of the recently agreed texts and support its member organisations in their advocacy efforts to embed sustainable and socially friendly procurement legal frameworks at national levels so as to enable a more just use of public money.”

Deplorably, the agreed provisions of the Directives still allow the purchase of the cheapest option - despite objections from the NSDPP and European Parliament - subsequently adding confusion to the criteria for assessing tenders. Although life-cycle costing provisions have been improved, the social externalities cannot be taken into account in the life-cycle calculation of the contracts.

In implementing the new rules, Members States should improve some of the elements left to their discretion in the new text. For instance, they can prohibit or restrict the “use of price only” criterion, and leave contracting authorities the choice between either assessing other aspects in addition to cost effectiveness, or base their purchasing decisions solely on that criterion. The NSDPP calls upon Member States to take responsibility for the environmental and social impacts of public purchasing when implementing the new Directives in their respective countries.   

The NSDPP also stresses that having a clear and enabling legal framework is not enough and needs positive measures to support its application. The network also calls on the European institutions to take a coherent approach to sustainability in public procurement and to develop a “buy socially responsible and sustainable” strategy with targets and a monitoring and evaluation program.

The Network for Sustainable Development in Public Procurement (NSDPP)

 
The NSDPP is a European network uniting social and environmental NGOs and trade union organisations that have the joint aim to achieve progress in sustainable development through enabling socially just EU public procurement legislation and policies.