RREUSE and its partners from the Network for Sustainable Development in Public Procurement have sent a joint letter to the European Commission outlining key priorities for the upcoming Public Procurement Act.
Public procurement accounts for around 16% of the EU’s GDP, making it a powerful means to shape markets, support quality jobs, and advance Europe’s social and environmental objectives. Yet in practice, contracts are still too often awarded solely on the basis of the lowest price criterion, which undermines labour standards, sustainability, and long-term value.
In our joint letter, we call on the European Commission to ensure that the future Public Procurement Act:
- To ensure best value for public money: the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) must be the default criterion when awarding public contracts, leaving out the possibility to procure based on the lowest price.
- To gradually phase the mandatory non-price criteria – social and environmental – in EU legislation, to ensure fair wages, decent jobs, decarbonisation and social inclusion.
- To enhance social economy access to public procurement through the explicit inclusion of targeted measures for public procurement access.
- To align the updated framework with existing EU provisions, enabling their implementation while ensuring coherence.
- To put in place robust and transparent monitoring on which evaluating and enforcing public procurement heavily depends.
