Ahead of the European Commission’s proposal for a revision of Europe’s public procurement rules on 1 July, 52 organisations have issued a joint statement urging the Commission to secure a future-proof Public Procurement Act.
The signatories, ranging industry and civil society to public buyers, urge the Commission to put forward a Public Procurement Act that secures strategic, resilient and value-based procurement.
The signatories note that procurement rules that currently predominantly award public contracts to the lowest-priced bid are outdated and no longer sufficient to achieve Europe’s strategic objectives. They risk locking in assets of poor quality that are harder to maintain and more expensive in the long run.
Strategic public procurement allows governments to deliver far greater resilience and competitiveness while accelerating decarbonisation and supporting Europe’s clean industrial transition. To do that, the statement calls on the Public Procurement Act to:
- Require public buyers to systematically assess offers based on best value, including quality and innovation, lifecycle costs and environmental and social performance.
- Deliver a straightforward, mandatory toolbox to drive efficient implementation, alongside enabling sectoral legislation to set minimum mandatory criteria in key sectors,
- Empower local and regional authorities to act as launch customers by strengthening the professionalization, guidance and capacity of public procurers at all levels of governance.
Elina Pihlajamäki, Policy Advisor at E3G, said:
“If the new Public Procurement Act is serious about decarbonisation, it cannot leave sustainability as an optional extra. Public procurement must move beyond lowest-price award decisions and actively create demand for low-carbon products.”
Amid intensifying global competition and environmental challenges, the Public Procurement Act is an opportunity to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness, promote resilient and responsible supply chains and accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral economy.
Read the full joint letter here.
