The Alliance for Sustainable Development in Public Procurement (ASDPP, for its acronym in English) has welcomed the European Commission’s proposal for a new Public Procurement Directive (Public Procurement Act), while considering that changes should be introduced during the legislative process to ensure that public procurement effectively contributes to social and environmental objectives.
The alliance, made up of non-governmental organisations, trade unions and social economy entities, including social enterprises, considers that the Commission’s proposal incorporates some of the recommendations put forward by its members during the assessment of the current European public procurement framework. These include a review of award criteria, stronger social clauses and greater requirements concerning supply chains.
However, the ASDPP warns that some of its demands have been weakened, turned into discretionary measures or left entirely out of the text. It therefore calls on the European Parliament and the Council to strengthen the proposal during the legislative process.
One of the main elements welcomed by the alliance is the possibility of moving from procurement that is excessively focused on price towards the best price-quality ratio (BPQR) criterion. The proposal establishes that quality criteria must have a minimum weighting of 30% — rising to 50% for labour-intensive contracts. Quality criteria include, for example, staff qualifications, social and environmental aspects, European preference or social innovation.
Greater access for the social economy
The participation of social economy organisations in public procurement is another of the central points of the Alliance’s position. The proposal maintains contracts reserved for work integration and sheltered employment organisations, as well as for certain non-profit social and welfare services. However, their use remains voluntary for contracting authorities.
The ASDPP considers that these tools should be more binding. Nor does it consider the provision concerning the division of contracts into lots to be sufficient: although public buyers must consider this possibility and justify their decision when they do not divide a contract, the alliance points out that this provision does not constitute an effective market reservation nor does it guarantee smaller contracts that could facilitate access for social economy actors.
Social and environmental sustainability is another area in which the alliance is calling for changes. In the proposal, both types of criteria remain largely optional. In environmental matters, a requirement is introduced for sectors considered to have a high impact, but the specific definition of the criteria remains largely in the hands of public procurers.
Control of subcontracting chains
The proposal also incorporates measures on subcontracting that the alliance considers positive. These include a ban on subcontracting the entirety of a public contract and the possibility of requiring certain tasks considered critical to be carried out directly by the main contractor.
Nevertheless, the ASDPP considers that these measures are not sufficient to limit long and complex subcontracting chains or to ensure that labour and sustainability standards are respected throughout the entire chain.
The organisation also welcomes the provisions envisaged to improve the collection of public procurement data. The creation of national data spaces connected to a European-level data space could facilitate more systematic monitoring of sustainable public procurement.
Negotiation phase
The Commission’s proposal is now entering the European legislative process, during which its provisions will have to be specified and negotiated. In this context, the ASDPP announces that it will continue working to strengthen the text and that it will put forward new technical proposals to the European Parliament and the Council.
The alliance’s objective is for future European legislation to turn public procurement into a tool capable of combining economic efficiency with social, environmental and labour objectives, while also facilitating greater participation by social economy organisations.
