Buying green! A handbook on environmental public procurement.
The European Commission has produced a Handbook on Green Public Procurement. It explains in clear, non-technical terms how public purchasers, such as schools, hospitals and national and local administrations, can take the environment into account when buying goods, services and works.

CAN-Europe's Views

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Legislation

• Present status of legislation
• Commission interpretative communication on the Community law applicable to public procurement and the possibilities for integrating social considerations into public procurement COM/2001/566, Eur-Lex, October 2001
• Proposal for a directive on the coordination of procedures for the award of public supply contracts, public service contracts and public works contracts COM(2000)275
• Proposal for a Directive on coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy and transport sectors COM(2000)276

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Archive

05/12/2003: Social and environmental criteria can be taken into account for public contracts, EurActiv

03/12/2003: Commission welcomes conciliation agreement on simplified and modernised legislation, European Commission Press Release

17 September 2002: Landmark ruling. The European Court of Justice found that the City of Helsinki was correct to award a call for tender for buses to a company whose buses emitted fewer air pollutants and noise, and not simply to the tender which provided the lowest cost offer. See ENDS report and Social and Environmental NGO press release

21st May 2002: Internal Market Council reached political agreement on public procurement which undermines the progress made in the European Parliament. The Council agreed that public procurement must be 'the most economically advantageous for the contracting authority'. This is potentially very damaging as it could limit the procurement of environmentally-friendly products which have wider economic benefits. This might mean that a ruling as in the case of the Finnish bus company in December last year would no longer be possible. In the Finnish bus case, the company was allowed to specify pollution criteria which provide economic benefits for society at large.

On the basis of the political agreement, the text of the common position will be finalised with a view to adoption and then forwarded to the European Parliament under the co-decision procedure.

Council conclusions 21 May 2002. (> council>internal market )

The Council reached political agreement on the proposal for a Directive on the coordination of procedures for the award of public supply contracts, public service contracts and public works contracts ("classical" Directive). On the basis of that agreement the text of the common position will be finalised with a view to adoption and then forwarded to the European Parliament under the
codecision procedure, once agreement has been reached on the proposal for a Directive coordinating the procurement entities operating in the water, energy and transport sectors ("utilities" Directive).
The Council took note of a progress report on the latter Directive and instructed the Permanent Representatives Committee to continue discussions aimed at reaching a common position.

17th January 2002: MEPs have approved, at its first reading, significant changes to draft EU rules for public procurement that will enable public authorities to give much stronger support to greener products. At its plenary meeting in Strasbourg last week, the European parliament widened the criteria that authorities must consider when awarding contracts for goods and services. In the original Commission draft, environmental benefits could only be taken into consideration if they directly aided the purchasing party. Under such rules, climate change, for example, could be excluded from consideration.
ENDS report 21st January
New Community Rules on Public Procurement Parliamentary Report 17th Jan 2002

13th December 2001: European court ruling on the Finnish Bus Company - Bus company allowed to specify noise and pollution criteria which would provide economic benefit for society at large

Commission 2001: Commission issues guidelines for environment-friendly procurement; Information event on the interpretative communication on public procurement and the environment; Guidelines on greening public procurement by using the European Eco-label criteria.

DG Internal Market: Public Procurement.

Public procurement in the European Union: communication, 11 March 1998.

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