Public Procurement
EU
Procurement of Clean Technologies
Under the Net-Zero Industry Act, the Commission is required to specify minimum mandatory requirements regarding environmental sustainability for public procurement procedures in scope of the Public Procurement Directives, where contracts have the net-zero technologies listed in Article 4(1), points (a) to (k) of the Net-Zero Industry Act as part of their subject matter and for works contracts and concessions including those net-zero technologies. The Commission is consulting until 14 October 2025 on an implementing regulation: Public procurement of clean technologies – minimum requirements on environmental sustainability.
Reform Agenda
The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for comprehensive reform of the public procurement framework. It makes a series of recommendations aimed at pursuing changes including:
- strategic use of procurement for infrastructure resilience,
- simplification of procedures and increased flexibility for large projects,
- mitigation of subcontracting risks,
- contract pricing and duration flexibility, including extending framework agreement durations and allowing negotiated procedures for follow-up contracts,
- favouring quality over lowest price, incorporating criteria for example relating to regional impact and sustainability,
- digitalisation and data-driven oversight, and
- sector-specific procurement rules especially in energy and utilities, to avoid delays and cost inflation and to reflect operational realities.
IRELAND
Circular Economy
Section 24 of the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025 proposes to introduce new sections on green public procurement to the Circular Economy Act. The Minister would be required to designate a body to prepare criteria that may be applied by public bodies in respect of goods, services or works that may be procured, in order to support the objective of protecting the environment, promoting environmental sustainability and supporting the transition to a circular economy. Public bodies would have to prepare an annual report explaining why they did not integrate the new green criteria into any procurement process.
UK
Proactive Market Shaping
The UK Competition and Markets Authority in a consultation response advocates using public procurement to shape and influence industry structures to deliver wider economic objectives. It makes recommendations around how public procurement can be used to further objectives such as supporting scale-ups, market dynamism, capacity and resilience, long-term value for money, and quality and innovation.