10 essential resources for fixing EU public procurement

The European Commission sets out to reform the EU public procurement directives by the end of 2026. Below are a few essential resources that analyse the shortcomings of the current public procurement directives and propose policy solutions to fix the EU’s broken public procurement rules.

1. An EMPL study on public procurement identified legal uncertainty as a major obstacle to social public procurement.
2. UNI Europa research that half of all public tenders across the EU are awarded solely based on the lowest price, often due to procurement rules.
3. A 2023 European Court of Auditors’s report found that promoting strategic procurement to encourage greater consideration of environmental, social or innovative aspects has had a limited impact, while the share of procedures using award criteria other than price has barely changed despite the 2014 public procurement reform.
4. In an open letter, over 100 world-leading economists, including Thomas Piketty and Isabella Weber, argued that “current procurement practices — with their dominant focus on the lowest price in tenders — create market conditions that allow bidders to disregard social criteria”.
5. Social partners in cleaning, security and catering published joint statements, calling for a revision of EU public procurement rules that puts an end to lowest-price competition and addressed sector-specific problems.
6. A UNI Europa report compared procurement practices across six European countries — and developed strategies for promoting decent work through public procurement in cleaning and private security services.
7. A report by the European Labour Authority (ELA) came to the conclusion that “collective agreements are a key quality criterion”, which can help prevent undeclared work in public procurement.
8. A UNI Europa report argued that the EU Commission has made great strides in green public procurement — and it should apply these lessons to social public procurement.
9. An EESC opinion highlighted how public procurement can be used as a tool to create value and dignity in work in cleaning and facility services.
10. A Europe-wide survey found that a large majority of EU citizens (72 per cent) are in favour of public procurement that strengthens workers’ livelihoods through collective bargaining.

For further information, please contact David Espinosa, Mark Bergfeld and Stan De Spiegelaere.