Green Public Procurement

What is the EU doing?

In 2008 the Commission published its Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Action Plan accompanied by a Communication on Green Public Procurement.

The current GPP policies at EU level are all of voluntary nature. The SCP Action Plan planned to introduce mandatory GPP requirements in the implementing measures of the Energy Label Directive. This would have identified one of the labeling classes below which public authorities would not be allowed to procure. Unfortunately the Council rejected this proposal.

The main voluntary policy tools are:

  • A Communication of the Commission on Integrated Product Policy (2003) which “encourages” all Member States to develop National GPP Action Plans by 2006
  • The Sustainable Development Strategy (2006) which aims to increase the average level of GPP in the EU to the level of the best performing Member States (at this time) by 2010. It also identifies activities to be carried out by the Commission to promote GPP.
  • The Communication on GPP of 2008 which concretises the existing target of the Sustainable Development Strategy by proposing that “by the year 2010, 50 % of all tendering procedures should be green”.
  • Development of common GPP criteria in the framework of a “GPP Toolkit” that is provided by the Commission. These criteria are developed to serve as a template for public purchasers and to define minimum standards for GPP in order to assess the level of GPP in the EU. At present, the Commission has developed criteria for 10 product groups whilst 10 other product groups are under development.

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