On 1st December 2021, Associate Professor Marta Andhov contributed to the public hearing of the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection in association with the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety titled ‘Sustainable public procurement: using the full potential of public buying to achieve goals of the European Green Deal.’
At the hearing, associate professor Marta Andhov gave her view of regulatory issues concerning SPP and underlined that it is necessary to revisit the fundamentals. In doing so, she highlighted the importance of balancing the internal market and sustainability objectives of the Union. More precisely, the internal market in 2021-2022 must truly encapsulate the ‘social market economy’ introduced with Lisbon Treaty, and it needs to be translated to legal terms. While ‘social market economy has become a widespread term, it is not yet reflected in legislation, which makes arguing for sustainability as the core objective of public procurement problematic due to the existing tension with the traditionally understood procurement objective of open competition. The continuous perception of sustainability as an “add-on” to public procurement gives it a secondary value compared to traditionally recognized principles of non-discrimination and equal treatment.
The current interpretation of the link to the subject matter is seen as limiting sustainable public procurement in practice. Marta Andhov stressed that the concept of life-cycle costing could replace it, as it provides enough security to equal treatment, non-discrimination and open competition in the internal market. This was already recommended last year in the Proposal for SPP Reform edited by the SAPIENS Network Coordinator Roberto Caranta and Marta Andhov titled Sustainability Through Public Procurement: The Way Forward-Reform proposals. The importance of life-cycle costing is in the fact that it can ensure that environmental impacts are minimized not only at the production stages but also in the use and after use of goods. A clear definition of life cycle cost can enable its inclusion in planning tenders and procurement budgets. In addition to this, Marta also made a small remark about the future that should bring mandatory sectoral legislation. Such legislation would stipulate the rules for achieving green goals while also providing a degree of legal certainty in the field.
For the recording of the full hearing please click here.
