EC proposes changes to public procurement rules

The European Commission has tabled legislative proposals to reform public procurement on 20 December 2011. The aim is to modernise existing rules and help public bodies use public procurement to achieve EU objectives in areas such as climate and energy.

These proposals are part of an overall programme aiming at an in-depth modernisation of public procurement in the European Union. This programme includes the revision of Directive 2004/17/EC (procurement in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors) and 2004/18/EC (public works, supply and service contracts), as well as the adoption of a directive on concessions, which were until now only partially regulated at European level.

One of the main proposals on green public procurement (GPP) is to write the life-cycle costing (LCC) approach into EU legislation. In practice, this proposal is unlikely to boost GPP in Europe since procurement officers can already apply LCC and they will remain free to choose whether to use it or not.

A consultation ran by the commission at the beginning of the year has revealed that most stakeholders do not support making the LCC approach binding.

Perhaps a more significant change proposed by the commission is the possibility to require products or services with environmental labels in the technical specifications. At the moment, procurement officers can require that certain labelling criteria are fulfilled but they cannot directly ask for labelled products.

The proposal also clarifies the criteria linked to the production process which procurement officers are allowed to specify in tender documents.

The Commission's proposals will be transmitted to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament with a view to launching the legislative procedure for their adoption, scheduled by the Single Market Act to take place before the end of 2012.

Sources: ENDS Europe, European Commission