Bellona Europa welcomes the revision of the EU Public Procurement framework.

Public procurement contributes to 15% of the European Union GDP in many sectors by purchasing services, works, and supplies. A significant part of it is represented by public procurement of construction works that amount to at least 1.4% of the bloc’s annual GDP. Thus, public procurers have the potential to create lead markets for low-carbon products. Even though there currently is the possibility to consider environmental criteria when awarding tenders, 55% of the procurement procedures use the lowest price as the sole awarding criterion for public contracts.

It is clear that leaving the adoption of environmental and climate criteria in tenders voluntary is not enough to support the bloc’s decarbonisation goals or create lead markets for low-carbon construction materials. At Bellona, we believe that the revision of the Public Procurement Directives should seize the opportunity to deliver on the Green Deal principles by introducing environmental and climate principles in the public procurement process.

Read the PDF for our detailed feedback for the evaluation of the Directives.