Strategic Public Procurement: An Overview. WWWforEurope Policy Paper No. 28
WWWforEurope: Welfare, Wealth and Work for Europe, December 2015, 29 pages
Supported by: Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft mbH – Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research – OeAD-GmbH
The paper provides an overview of the development of public procurement (PP) rules in the EU and in selected international
organisations. The EU rules were originally designed to foster competition and efficiency, and the dominant award criterion
was the price. Over time, and in particular in the context of the "Europe 2020" strategy, PP rules have been extended to address
not only economic objectives, but also social and environmental goals as well as innovation aspects. As a result, such "strategic"
elements of PP have in 2014 been legalised by the new EU Procurement Directives. However, as long as strategic PP remains
an isolated policy, it will have only limited ramifications on Community-wide sustainability. Strategic PP should rather complement
sustainability policies in their respective areas and should thus become an integral part of overall EU policies.