Dear reader, You have in your hands a special issue of the European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review devoted to sustainable procurement, for which I had the honour to be invited to act as guest editor. The publication of this special issue could not be more timely, as relevant policy and legal developments for sustainable procurement have and are taking place at both International and European level. At International level, a revised text of the World Trade Organization’s Go...

This article focuses on sustainable development and public procurement and reflects on the significance of questioning the goals sustainable public procurement seeks to achieve. While it is recognised that developing appropriate legal frameworks and regulatory tools for environmental, social and economic quality assurance is important, achieving sustainable procurement nevertheless remains political. With the forthcoming adoption of new European Union Public Procurement Directives, the articl...

Since the European Court of Justice’s 1988 judgment in Beentjes recognising the possibility to include social criteria in public procurement, the case law and legislation on references to social and environmental concerns in this area have evolved substantially. In May 2012, almost ten years after its latest important ruling on this issue, the Court handed down its judgment in European Commission v Kingdom of the Netherlands. While upholding procuring entities’ ability to require that goo...

The paper discusses a new tool to be used in public procurement by contracting authorities, namely Life-Cycle Costing (LCC), in light of the efforts made at the EU level to promote green and sustainable public procurement. The authors analyse the provisions concerning life-cycle costing comprised in the proposal of the European Commission for the new Public Procurement Directives. Several obstacles regarding the implementation of life-cycle costing are discussed alongside with a brief analysi...

Sustainable public procurement indicates that procurement is about more than just saving money. Other important interests such as social and environmental considerations can be promoted through public procurement. Thus, the Member States may use their purchasing power to procure goods and services that foster innovation, respect the environment and combat climate change while improving employment, public health and social conditions. However, the objective of the procurement rules is primaril...

Although public procurement is increasingly used to contribute to sustainable development goals and the European Union has repeatedly recognised its importance as a tool for implementing specific social and environmental objectives, EU public procurement rules are often unclear about how to integrate sustainability criteria into the procurement process. The on-going review of the EU public procurement Directives provides an opportunity for lawmakers to clarify the legal framework for sustaina...

Greening public procurement involves more than just changes in the legislation, it requires changes in procurement practices. Three issues appear to be particularly significant: The greening of technical specifications, the development of life-cycle methodologies, and, at the organisational level, training of public officials. International organisations, and notably UNEP, UNOPS, ILO and ITC-ILO, have played and are playing a relevant role here.

Helping Public Procurement G...

In the recent North Holland case, the Advocate General noted that the Court was ‘faced with the challenge of finding a balance between the requirements of the internal market and environmental and social concerns, without however ignoring the practical requirements of award procedures’. This tightrope walk is an interesting one to explore. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has on several occasions been asked to consider situations where contracting authorities have pursued...

I. Introduction This report comments on the most relevant issues of Sustainable Public Procurement (“SPP”) in the Portuguese legal system, looking in particular at the social and environmental criteria used in the context of public procurement.1 Generally speaking, in Portugal, “social” criteria have not, so far, achieved the success that the “environmental” criteria have known, which, although relatively recent, has effectively contributed to the progressive and sustained developmen...

I. Introduction On a general note, it is important to highlight that the existence of a bilateral agreement between the European Union (at the time the European Community) and the Swiss Confederation on certain aspects of government procurement1 does not mean that EU Public Procurement Directives are relevant for the legal framework of Swiss public procurement. Rather, the most significant international treaty for Switzerland is, by far, the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procu...