New EU public procurement rules must contribute to quality jobs

CESI welcomes the European Commission’s decision to revise the EU Public Procurement Directives 2014/23/EU, 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU. With public authorities spending over EUR 2.6 trillion annually – around 15% of EU GDP – public procurement is one of the EU’s most powerful policy tools to shape economic development, support strategic autonomy – and deliver tangible social progress for workers .

CESI expects that the revision aims to not only ‘simplify’ and ‘modernise’ procurement rules, strengthen economic security and sovereignty, and better align procurement with EU strategic objectives, but also to span to aspects of social and environmental sustainability. CESI strongly supports a revision of EU rules, provided that the reform decisively strengthens the social dimension of public procurement and prevents a continued race to the bottom in wages and working conditions that the current directives contribute to. As the Draghi report correctly stresses, competitiveness achieved through competition towards lower wages is not sustainable.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: "For CESI, the revision of the EU public procurement directives represents a long-awaited opportunity to turn public spending into a genuine driver of quality jobs, social progress and fair competition. We urge the European Commission to propose an ambitious, socially balanced reform that ensures public money works for workers and citizens – not for social dumping, precarious employment and tax avoidance. A modernised procurement framework must combine simplification and efficiency with strong social safeguards, trade union involvement and respect for collective bargaining. Only then can public procurement fully contribute to a resilient, competitive and socially just economy that the EU needs."

CESI underlines that public procurement is not a neutral technical process. It is a political and economic instrument that must not least also serve the public interest. Any revision of the procurement directives must therefore be guided by the following overarching principles:

(1) Public money must not finance social dumping, precarious work or violations of labour and social rights. It must actively support quality jobs, collective bargaining and fair competition in the Single Market.

(2) Quality, sustainability and social value in public tendering must take precedence over the lowest-price logic.

(3) Simplification and flexibility must not come at the expense of workers’ protection or democratic accountability.

CESI's full consultation contribution is available here.