Source: European Commission.

The European Commission presented a new proposal on 9 September aimed at strengthening the role of environmental considerations in EU public procurement. Find all information HERE.

Under the proposed framework, contracting authorities would have greater scope to take environmental performance into account throughout procurement procedures, including when defining technical specifications, assessing bids and setting contract performance conditions. Such requirements would need to remain connected to the subject matter of the contract.

A key element of the proposal is the stronger integration of circularity and resource efficiency into public purchasing decisions. Depending on the product concerned, procurement requirements could consider characteristics such as durability, reparability and the use of recycled materials.

The proposal also opens the door to greater use of alternative consumption and ownership models, including leasing, sharing arrangements and product-as-a-service solutions.

Importantly, the Commission would be empowered to establish mandatory environmental requirements for specific product categories through secondary legislation. This could contribute to a more harmonised approach to green public procurement across the EU and increase the role of environmental performance in public purchasing decisions.

The initiative is potentially significant for European industry given the economic weight of public procurement, which represents around 15% of EU GDP.

For the woodworking industries, the development of future product-specific environmental criteria will be particularly important. The recognition of circularity, resource efficiency and environmental performance in procurement rules could create opportunities for wood-based products, provided that future criteria appropriately recognise the renewable nature of wood, its capacity to store carbon and its contribution to circular material use.

This potential is explicitly reflected in the Regulation, which recognises that green public procurement should contribute to the development of lead markets for sustainable bio-based products and solutions, in line with the EU Bioeconomy Strategy. The proposal therefore seeks to clarify how public buyers can support this objective while ensuring value for money and maintaining the principle that procurement conditions must remain linked to the subject matter of the contract.

This reference is particularly relevant for the wood-based industries. As a renewable and bio-based material, wood can contribute to the transition towards a more circular and resource-efficient economy. The way in which these principles are translated into future green public procurement requirements will therefore be important to ensure that the environmental benefits of sustainable wood-based products are appropriately recognised and that public procurement can effectively support the development of markets for bio-based solutions.