On Monday 27 January, the first exchange of views between MEPs on the European Parliament's Committee on Internal Market (IMCO) on European legislation governing public procurement in the European Union highlighted a number of areas of convergence, such as the need to simplify the rules, but also a stumbling block, namely the application of social and environmental criteria when selecting tenderers.
Piotr Müller (ECR, Polish), responsible for steering the drafting of an own-initiative report, stressed the importance of “facilitating access for SMEs” to public contracts. Christian Doleschal (EPP, German), said that public procurement in the EU is essential to remain competitive, but the European directives, last amended in 2014 (see EUROPE 10997/3), remain “too complex, bureaucratic and insufficiently flexible to incorporate political priorities”. Klára Dostálová (PfE, Czech) was of the same opinion, advocating a “reduction in the administrative burden’ for both contracting authorities and businesses throughout the public contract award procedure.
On the left of the political spectrum, several speakers stressed that public procurement should also be used to stimulate the climate transition and promote social rights.
“We want to emphasise social and environmental criteria”, said Pierre Jouvet (S&D, French). Anna Cavazzini (Greens/EFA, German) pointed out that public procurement played a role in “social inclusion” citing hospitals and child-care centres, and advocated moving away from the ‘race to the bottom’ model. Hanna Gedin (The Left, Swedish) and Kateřina Konečná (NI, Czech) insisted on respect for workers’ rights, both in companies that win public contracts and in subcontractors.
On the other hand, argued Mr Müller, respecting social and environmental criteria is sometimes at odds with the quest to reduce the administrative burden and increase competition.
The use of public procurement for strategic purposes was also discussed. Mr Jouvet put forward the idea of a ‘Buy European Act’. What about reciprocity in access to public procurement with third countries? - asked Sandro Gozi (Renew Europe, Italian), advocating the introduction of a “European preference” as is the case in the United States.
The European Commission representative set out three priorities for legislative reform: - promote the strategic role of public procurement in fostering social and environmental resilience; - the search for European added value; - simplification. He reiterated that an assessment of the existing rules was underway (see EUROPE 13545/24), with stakeholders having until 7 March to send in their comments.
Speaking on behalf of the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs, Grzegorz Lang highlighted the “unfair competitive disadvantage” suffered by European companies in relation to their competitors from third countries when it comes to winning major public contracts. As for small markets, he advocated greater flexibility by waiving certain rules.
Finally, the representative of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) noted that local and regional authorities lack the resources to deal with overly complex and rigid procedures. For the representative, it is necessary to analyse "which services could be excluded from the scope of the directives or be subject to a lighter regulatory regime” and to raise the European thresholds “significantly”. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)