The European Public Procurement Alliance, led by MEPs Dennis Radtke (EPP, German), Nikolaj Villumsen (The Left, Danish), Sara Matthieu (Greens/EFA, Belgian) and Agnes Jongerius (S&D, Dutch), was launched on Tuesday 23 April in Strasbourg, according to a joint press release.
“The Alliance, made up of key members of the European Parliament representing different political groups and countries, aims to keep up the pressure on the Commission and the Council to revise the EU’s outdated public procurement rules, in particular the Public Procurement Directive. The ambition is to obtain a revision that will enable better use to be made of Europe’s 2 trillion euros in annual public procurement contracts to shape the European economy, guarantee fair competition and ensure decent working conditions.
“Far too many public tenders are awarded solely based on the lowest price, while service quality, working conditions or environmental impact are simply not considered”.
According to the European Parliament, in 2021, ten Member States awarded 82 to 95% of their calls for tender solely on the basis of the lowest price or cost. A “short-sighted logic”, according to the MEPs.
Projects financed by public funds are sometimes “also awarded to companies that endanger the lives of workers by failing to comply with basic health and safety rules, or to companies that exploit posted workers by paying them less than the applicable minimum wage”.
Link to the call: https://aeur.eu/f/bwm (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)