PUBLIC PROCUREMENT NEWS

  

News

13 April 2012

Study notes wide-scale uptake of green public procurement in EU

A recent study produced by the Centre for European Policy Studies and the College of Europe indicates that green public procurement is being practiced on a large scale within the EU. 55 percent of the last contracts signed by public authorities from 2009-2010 included at least one EU core GPP criterion and 26 percent included all surveyed EU core GPP criteria.

While the study indicated a positive trend in GPP (the inclusion of at least one core criterion was significantly higher in the last contracts signed than for the whole period of 2009-2010) it also found that the indicative target set by the European Commission that 50 percent of all public tendering procedures should be green in the EU by 2010 was not met. Purchasing costs are still the predominant criterion for awarding contracts with 64% of those surveyed mainly using the lowest price as the decisive criterion. Only a minority use predominantly Life Cycle Costing evaluation methods.

A positive result was that the greenness of contracts seems to be higher when looking at the value of contracts compared to the number of contracts. The study also highlighted that EU GPP criteria vary significantly across Europe. Over 850 public authorities from 26 Member States participated in a survey for the study and information on more than 230,000 contracts was collected.

To view the report in full, click here.