Headline : Towards fair European economies

Read more from the original article on here at www.ips-journal.eu.

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No. of Paragraph 33

Public Procurement, for many a somewhat bureaucratic, not to say boring-sounding couple of words. And yet, the process of public authorities purchasing work, goods or services from companies and how different practices impacts or even distorts the playing-field should be at the forefront of the political debate. Because the fact of the matter is that public procurement matters far more than many realise, also in EU-politics.

One reason it matters, is that we are talking about huge sums of money: Every single year, EU Member States spend altogether roughly two trillion euros on public procurement - or about 14 per cent of our combined GDP. At the same time, public procurement is vital to the functioning of our society. It concerns anything from energy, infrastructure and transport, to health, cleaning and waste management. Touching so many sectors, and with such impressive amounts means that it is something that can - and should - be used as a tool in many of the more pressing policy areas.

Regrettably, however, the state of the Union today is that far too many public tenders are awarded solely based on the lowest price, while service quality, working conditions or environmental impact are simply not considered.

According to a study done for the European Parliament, in 2021 ten Member States awarded 82-95 per cent of their tenders solely on the basis of the lowest price or cost. But the logic of the lowest price is short sighted. It undermines the quality of services and consumer products and it hurts workers and companies alike. Workers because they end up being treated unfairly and companies because it means that those playing by the rules risk unfair competition from those that can bid lower because they break the rules.

Read more from the original article on here at www.ips-journal.eu.

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