News

New joint multisectoral social partners position on public procurement



Social partners in cleaning, private security and catering sectors adopted a common position on the revised directive on public procurement calling for the elimination of the lowest price criteria



In the context of the review of current EU public procurement legislation, the European social partners of the cleaning (UNI Europa/EFCI), contract catering (EFFAT/FERCO) and private security (UNI Europa/CoESS) sectors, submitted a joint position paper on the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on public procurement that was sent to all relevant contacts in the European Institutions.



Social partners believe their contribution will provide further insights and perspectives to the ongoing discussions and help achieve the underlying objectives of the proposed directive, that is, to allow for greater strategic use of public procurement while increasing the efficiency of public spending.



In particular, they have identified four areas of particular concern and where legislation should be improved, notably:



· Article 66 on “contract award criteria”

· Article 69 on “abnormally low tenders”

· Article 84 on “governance”

· Article 33 on “electronic auctions”



Furthermore, they also welcomed the IMCO report (the Internal Market and Consumers protection Committee is the leading Committee in the European Parliament for this initiative) and the EMPL (Employment and social affairs Committee) opinion of the European Parliament, and they expressed their support to the proposed amendments which integrate many of the social partners’ concerns and demands as regards the inclusion and the reinforcement of social considerations in public procurement and in particular the elimination of the lowest price option, the respect of social legislation and collective agreements including the respect of the employment terms and conditions applied in the place where the service or the work is performed.



Please find the position paper attached to this article.



For more information please contact:



UNI-Europa: Laila Castaldo, Tel: +32 2 234 56 56, E-mail: uni-europa@uniglobalunion.org

CoESS: Hilde De Clerck, Tel: +32 2 462 07 73, E-mail: apeg-bvbo@i-b-s.be EFCI/FENI: Andreas Lill, Tel: +32 2 225 83 30, E-mail: office@feni.be

EFFAT: Kerstin Howald, Tel: +32 2 218 77 30, E-mail: effat@effat.org

FERCO: Rocco Renaldi, Tel: +32 2 808 0644, E-mail: RRenaldi@landmarkeurope.eu