Towards mandatory Green Public Procurement (GPP) requirements under the EU Green Deal: reconsidering the role of public
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Towards mandatory Green Public Procurement (GPP) requirements under the EU Green Deal: reconsidering the role of public procurement as an environmental policy tool Kleoniki Pouikli1,2
© The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze the inclusion of Green Public Procurement (GPP) requirements in the EU public procurement regime. The debate about moving towards greener public purchasing has been fueled afresh in the wake of the EU Green Deal, which highlights the significance of a public procurement regime in pursuing the existing environmental policy goals at EU level. This is also reflected in other key EU policy documents, such as the Circular Economy Package, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the climate change legislation implementing the Paris Agreement. In this context, this paper aspires to map the intersections between the public spending decisions of contracting authorities and their discretion in inserting environmental considerations through the lens of increasing compliance with the adopted environmental targets. Keywords Public procurement · Green criteria · Environmental objectives · EU Green Deal
1 Introduction Government expenditure on works, goods and services represent around 19% of EU GDP, accounting for roughly EUR 2.3 trillion annually.1 Due to this massive value 1 European Commission, Bying Green! – A Handbook on green public procurement, 3rd edition, 2016,
pp. 4–5.
B K. Pouikli
[email protected]
1
Course Director – Public Law, Academy of European Law, Trier, Germany
2
Post-Doctoral Researcher, Law School, National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
K. Pouikli
of public procurement, and the enormous market it creates, public procurement, particularly when used in a strategic way, is a relevant and powerful way to respond to societal, environmental and economic challenges, and to shape the way in which both the public and private sector behave on the market. Hence, nowadays, public procurement satisfies a variety of concerns relating to: a. anticorruption and transparency, b. efficiency (the best value for money), c. policy instruments, such as social and environmental considerations, d. competition concerns, e. building an internal market for government procurement in the EU context.2 Generally, in developed as well as developing countries, a sound procurement system seems to have two groups of objectives: procurement and non-procurement.3 Namely, the procurement objectives normally include quality, timeliness, cost (more than just price), minimizing business, financial and technical risks, maximizing competition and maintaining integrity, whilst the non-procurement objectives cover environmental protection priorities, social objectives and international relations (i.e. global trade agreements) objectives. At EU level, the debate about the interrelationship between the public procurement rules and the achievement of environmental goals at EU level has revived in the wake of the 2014 EU Public Procurement reform, where it was ack
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