The EU wants to make public procurement the cornerstone of its new industrial policy
A new set of rules is intended to give authorities clearer quality requirements - and give them the freedom to exclude providers from abroad.
The European Union has introduced the Public Procurement Act (PPA) to make public contracts a key instrument of its new industrial policy. The PPA aims to prioritize companies from the EU's single market when awarding contracts worth hundreds of billions of euros for infrastructure, schools, energy, and healthcare. The new rules, which cover around 600 billion euros of public contracts, will require authorities to consider "quality" criteria, including environmental, social, and innovative aspects, alongside price.
The EU also plans to introduce a European preference for public contracts, allowing authorities to restrict participation to EU companies and reject bids with less than 50% EU content. The PPA is expected to save authorities 650 million euros per year in bureaucratic costs.
Written by urgent.news from Politico EU's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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