Around 100 MEPs from five of the European Parliament’s main political groups (EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and the Left) called on Tuesday 30 November for public procurement to only be awarded to companies that have concluded collective agreements with their workers.
Every year, public institutions spend €2 trillion on services provided by private corporations, said the press release.
“That is 13% of the EU’s GDP. This money can be used as a force for the good”, said Agnes Jongerius (S&D, the Netherlands). The problem, according to MEPs, is that EU public procurement rules are “biased” to favour pricing above all else (this would affect half of all public procurements in the EU), to the detriment of the quality of the service or the working conditions of people.
The signatories are calling for changes to EU public procurement rules.
Response from the European Commission
In March, more than a hundred unions launched a similar appeal. The European Commission had replied in a letter that there were already many rules at European level and that it was already working with Member States to ensure that public procurement took social issues into account.
Read the Commission’s letter: https://bit.ly/3phexZK
Read the MEPs’ letter: https://bit.ly/3phndiG (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)