Sustainable Public Procurement and the Single Market – is there a conflict of interest?
(2013) In European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review 8(1). p.31-40- Abstract
- Sustainable public procurement indicates that procurement is about more than just saving money. Other important interests such as social and environmental considerations can be promoted through public procurement. Thus, the Member States may use their purchasing power to procure goods and services that foster innovation, respect the environment and combat climate change while improving employment, public health and social conditions. However, the objective of the procurement rules is primarily to strengthen the single market and the EU's competitiveness. This article will discuss how sustainable procurement may be reconciled with the EU internal market law in general. It is the view of the author that contracting authorities within the EU... (More)
- Sustainable public procurement indicates that procurement is about more than just saving money. Other important interests such as social and environmental considerations can be promoted through public procurement. Thus, the Member States may use their purchasing power to procure goods and services that foster innovation, respect the environment and combat climate change while improving employment, public health and social conditions. However, the objective of the procurement rules is primarily to strengthen the single market and the EU's competitiveness. This article will discuss how sustainable procurement may be reconciled with the EU internal market law in general. It is the view of the author that contracting authorities within the EU cannot be given full freedom to set social and environmental requirements for the award of a public contract as such a development would undermine the Single Market. The newly proposed Directives on public procurement can therefore not be interpreted as a carte blanche for sustainable procurement. They show a possible way to foster innovation, improve the environment, public health and social conditions, but it should not be seen as a particularly simple or highly efficient way. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8166793
- author
- Hettne, Jörgen LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2013
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review
- volume
- 8
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 31 - 40
- publisher
- Lexxion
- ISSN
- 2194-7384
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- f5c1a3e9-450c-4862-89eb-37a8a6b43f53 (old id 8166793)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:13:55
- date last changed
- 2022-09-23 16:36:04
@article{f5c1a3e9-450c-4862-89eb-37a8a6b43f53,
abstract = {{Sustainable public procurement indicates that procurement is about more than just saving money. Other important interests such as social and environmental considerations can be promoted through public procurement. Thus, the Member States may use their purchasing power to procure goods and services that foster innovation, respect the environment and combat climate change while improving employment, public health and social conditions. However, the objective of the procurement rules is primarily to strengthen the single market and the EU's competitiveness. This article will discuss how sustainable procurement may be reconciled with the EU internal market law in general. It is the view of the author that contracting authorities within the EU cannot be given full freedom to set social and environmental requirements for the award of a public contract as such a development would undermine the Single Market. The newly proposed Directives on public procurement can therefore not be interpreted as a carte blanche for sustainable procurement. They show a possible way to foster innovation, improve the environment, public health and social conditions, but it should not be seen as a particularly simple or highly efficient way.}},
author = {{Hettne, Jörgen}},
issn = {{2194-7384}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{31--40}},
publisher = {{Lexxion}},
series = {{European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review}},
title = {{Sustainable Public Procurement and the Single Market – is there a conflict of interest?}},
volume = {{8}},
year = {{2013}},
}