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UNI Europa asked for more social clauses to be included in the technical specifications and the selection criteria. The current proposal for a new directive on public procurement falls short on several aspects: the possibility to include employment and working conditions as selection criteria is still too narrow. All the same, according to the new text, contracting authorities will still be able to award contract to the bidder who offer the lowest cost. The cleaning industry is a high labour intensive sector (about 80% of the production costs), the price of a service provision is mainly based on personnel costs (including wages and additional labour costs). This results in a very high competitive pressure which causes the contractors to present very tight bids, often to the detriment of the quality of service, the working conditions and staff training. Mr. Tarabella, who is the rapporteur for the new directive, was open to UNI Europa concerns. He seemed to understand the particular need to protect workers in the cleaning industry and recognised that social clauses can have a real impact on their working and employment conditions. He further encouraged UNI Europa to provide more input about procurement in the cleaning sector. He reiterated that he will push to strengthen social aspects and will pay particular attention to subcontracting.