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★Mark us as a preferred sourceThe European Commission’s latest proposal for a new Public Procurement Act aims to decisively strengthen sustainability and limit widespread exemptions. The Federal Association of the German Waste, Water and Circular Economy (BDE) officially welcomes the clear shift toward quality orientation. However, the organization strongly demands mandatory circular economy criteria and the elimination of unjustified exemptions to ensure fair, competitive markets rather than relying on ineffective voluntary guidelines.
Green public procurement represents one of the most critical driving forces for achieving the European Union’s long-term sustainability and circular economy goals. In an official statement published in Brussels and Berlin on September 11, 2026, the BDE comprehensively responded to the newly presented Public Procurement Act drafted by the European Commission. The legislative proposal aims to consolidate the existing, highly fragmented public procurement directives into a single, directly applicable regulation across all Member States. The Commission’s primary objective is to radically simplify administrative procedures, promote digital procurement infrastructure, and ensure that public spending is far more aligned with high quality, environmental sustainability, and strategic resilience.
The New Framework for Green Public Procurement and Quality Orientation
A fundamental cornerstone of the new European regulatory proposal is that, in the future, the best price-quality ratio will serve as the primary deciding factor in awarding public contracts, effectively replacing the widespread practice of choosing strictly the lowest bidder. The legislative draft establishes strict quantitative benchmarks: quality criteria must account for at least 30 percent of the total evaluation score. Furthermore, for highly labor-intensive public contracts, this benchmark is elevated to a minimum of 50 percent.
These qualitative criteria may encompass a wide range of factors, including environmental considerations, social impact, technological innovation, and the verified professional qualifications of the employed personnel. Crucially, the Commission creates a binding framework for specific environmental requirements, which can dictate mandatory recycled content, overall recyclability, and the reparability of acquired goods.
Why Voluntary Approaches Fail the Circular Economy
While the Commission’s aims are forward-looking, the BDE argues that the broad application of the proposed framework falls dangerously short of what is actually required. Dr. Andreas Bruckschen, Managing Director of the BDE, emphasized this in his official statement: “More quality and a more strategic approach to public procurement are the right directions. However, regarding green public procurement, the proposal generally falls short of what is necessary. Environmental and circular economy criteria should not merely be considered; they must be a binding component of public tenders. Only in this way can a reliable and steady demand for recycled raw materials and circular solutions be created.”
This stringent critique is strongly supported by the European Court of Auditors’ special report on public procurement published in 2023. The factual data from the 2023 report conclusively demonstrated that voluntary environmental criteria are simply not applied in practice by contracting authorities, leaving the lowest price as the sole, decisive factor in awarding contracts. The European Commission itself acknowledges in the explanatory memorandum of the regulation that purely price-based awards remain deeply entrenched, while social, ecological, and innovation-related requirements are utilized only to a very limited extent. As Dr. Bruckschen noted, this clearly shows that relying on voluntary adherence is entirely insufficient.
Sector-Specific Limitations vs. Universal Circularity
Currently, the draft regulation strictly mandates stronger inclusion of green criteria only within selected, specific sectors. Examples of these mandatory sectors include the procurement of commercial vehicles and the packaging sector, heavily influenced by the new EU Packaging Regulation (PPWR) 2024/40. From the BDE’s perspective, restricting mandatory green criteria to a handful of individual sectors is incomprehensible. The Association insists that circular public procurement and binding green standards must operate as a universal principle across the board, particularly concerning product recyclability and the guaranteed inclusion of secondary recycled materials.
European Preference and Third-Country Competitors
The BDE explicitly welcomes the Commission’s move to establish a horizontal framework to enforce a “European preference.” Moving forward, public authorities are expected to set origin requirements, legally favor European offers during the evaluation process, and, under strictly defined conditions, reject bids that contain an inadequately low proportion of European or equivalent services. Under this proposal, the definition of “European offers” extends to bids originating from third countries that grant European bidders reciprocal access to their own domestic procurement markets based on the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) or equivalent bilateral trade treaties.
The Association stresses that the decisive factor will be whether these instruments are actively enforced in practice to genuinely strengthen European recycling raw materials, ensuring completely fair and comparable competitive conditions against third-country bids.
BDE’s Sharp Criticism: The 80 Percent Rule and Exemptions
The most severe criticism from the BDE is directed at the continuation and expansion of exceptions within the public procurement framework. The BDE evaluates it as highly detrimental that existing exemptions for “in-house” procurement and public-public cooperation are not only being maintained but are actually being supplemented by an entirely new exemption covering specific forms of local and regional administrative cooperation.
Under the proposed rules, a direct contract award remains perfectly legal for enterprises that are solely or jointly controlled by the contracting public authority, provided that more than 80 percent of the enterprise’s total activities are dedicated directly to fulfilling tasks for the controlling public authority.
The Urgent Need for Mandatory Market Consultation
Another highly problematic element for the BDE is that market consultations prior to a contract award remain strictly voluntary. The Association demands a legal requirement obligating authorities to conduct robust and verifiable market assessments before issuing any direct, non-tendered awards, in order to explicitly verify whether suitable and highly capable offers already exist on the open market.
“Where functioning markets exist, their performance capabilities must be actively utilized,” stressed Dr. Bruckschen. Introducing a mandatory market exploration phase would ensure absolute transparency and guarantee that highly capable private providers are not unfairly excluded from the outset. Fair competition inherently incentivizes superior quality, drives technological innovation, and ensures the absolute most efficient use of public funds—which should be the core objective of all procurement laws.
The BDE concludes its position by officially calling on the European Council and the European Parliament to rigorously refine the proposal during the upcoming legislative process, specifically focusing on expanding the circular economy and safeguarding fair competition.
FAQ: Green Public Procurement in the EU
What is the primary goal of the Commission’s new Public Procurement Act?
The overarching goal is to consolidate existing directives into one directly applicable regulation, significantly simplify administrative procedures, expand digital procurement tools, and shift the priority from the lowest price to a much stronger emphasis on quality, sustainability, and resilience.
What are the new numerical quality criteria benchmarks?
The new framework strictly mandates that quality criteria must account for a minimum of 30 percent of the total evaluation score in general contracts. For highly labor-intensive public contracts, this mandatory quality evaluation benchmark is increased to at least 50 percent.
Why does the BDE reject the current voluntary environmental rules?
The Association asserts that voluntary guidelines have completely failed. This is heavily backed by the European Court of Auditors’ 2023 report, which proved that contracting authorities ignore voluntary criteria in favor of the lowest price. The BDE demands universally binding circular economy rules instead of isolated, sector-specific mandates.
How does the 80 percent rule affect direct procurement awards?
The proposed legislation allows contracting authorities to legally bypass public tenders and directly award contracts to companies they control, but only on the strict condition that more than 80 percent of the controlled company’s activities are dedicated to serving that specific authority. The BDE strongly criticizes this as an anti-competitive loophole.
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