Iryna Zapatrina, Anna Shatkovska

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 19 (2024), Issue 1, Page 5 - 13

Recently, attention to the issue of extending the role of public-private partnership (PPP) in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has significantly increased. There are several reasons for this: a serious lag behind the planned indicators for achieving the SDGs, largely due to the unsatisfactory state of life support infrastructure in countries of developing economies; a constantly widening infrastructure gap; and the insufficient use of private businesses to create the infrastructure critical to achieving the SDGs. To ensure the active participation of private businesses in this process, new institutional mechanisms are needed. Some of these mechanisms, providing for the assessment of compliance of projects with the SDGs, have already been created and are actively promoted for the implementation of PPP projects. This article contains an analysis of these mechanisms and recommendations for incorporating new approaches to assessing the sustainability of businesses interested in implementing infrastructure projects of public interest into the PPP process, based on the principles laid down in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and European Sustainability Reporting Standards. Keywords: Public-Private Partnership; Sustainable Development Goals; Infrastructure; Sustainability Reporting; Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive; European Sustainability Reporting Standards.

Aura Iurascu

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 18 (2023), Issue 1, Page 6 - 16

With the 2003 Communication on Integrated Product Policy, the European Commission started focusing more on ‘greening’ Member States’ public procurement law, by encouraging the adoption of National Action Plans (NAPs). Subsequently, with the 2008 Communication, green public procurement (GPP) criteria were developed. Since then, the Commission has developed more than 20 standard GPP criteria, which are currently applied voluntarily. Recently, the EU Commission indicated that they are working on mandating GPP criteria and several legislative proposals are foreseeing the setup of mandatory EU GPP criteria for all Member States. Some domestic legislations have already introduced mandatory GPP criteria. In particular, the Italian legislator followed up the Commission’s initiative on NAPs, and adopted mandatory minimum environmental criteria (MECs) for 18 purchasing categories. This article aims to describe and compare the evolution of GPP criteria in the EU and Italy to illustrate and anticipate possible outcomes for the forthcoming mandatory GPP at the EU level. By doing so, the paper emphasises the prominent role played by the Italian Council of State in ensuring the mandatory minimum for environmental criteria in Italian law. Finally, it argues that the Italian approach, which uses the ineffectiveness of the contract as a general and well-established remedy, has proven successful in ensuring the enforcement of MECs. Keywords: GPP criteria; sustainable public procurement; mandatory minimum environmental criteria; Italian public procurement law; ineffectiveness of public contract

Nadia-Ariadna Sava

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 18 (2023), Issue 3, Page 177 - 184

As of October 2023, the eForms Regulation will become the mandatory standard for public procurement data collection above the thresholds, including data on sustainability. The eForms have the potential to collect sustainable public procurement data and kickstart the process of monitoring green and social public procurement in all Member States. Nevertheless, in their current form, it is improbable that eForms can achieve this goal, because the Regulation makes all sustainable data collection fields optional. Member States can decide to collect sustainable public procurement data, but they lack proper incentives to do so. Both the European Union and Member States should take on the goal of creating a sustainable public procurement data infrastructure, with each its roles and obligations. Keywords: sustainable public procurement, eForms Regulation, data collection, digitalising public procurement, monitoring.

Sarah Maria Denta

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 17 (2022), Issue 4, Page 211 - 220

Reducing the use of plastic is essential because plastic production involves an enormous use of energy and resources, which results in a high amount of carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. This article focuses on regulations concerning plastic, particularly, the coming global Plastic Treaty, which the UN is expected to adopt in 2024. The article argues that regulation will not be enough to solve the issue of plastic pollution; innovative and alternative solutions are necessary. The article further suggests public-private partnerships for the climate as a way of supporting the coming Plastic Treaty. Keywords: Global Plastic Treaty; plastic pollution; public-private partnerships for the climate; Resolution End Plastic Pollution; United Nation’s sustainable development goal; United Nations Environment Assembly

Tongle Si

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 17 (2022), Issue 1, Page 33 - 43

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) refer to arrangements between the public sector and the private sector, in which they share rewards, responsibilities and risks. PPPs are mainly used to deliver infrastructure and public services. In the recent decade, China has witnessed rapid growth in both the number and investment scale of PPPs projects. With the promotion of sustainable development in the 13th Five-Year Plan, the Chinese government starts to take sustainability into considerations when carrying out PPPs projects. Different from traditional command-and-control measures that impose explicit policy orders on private sectors, PPPs function as a market-based instrument (MBI) that gives private sectors a nudge stimulating their innovation in the market competition. In China's PPPs market, the proportion of foreign investment has been declining in recent years. The 14th Five-Year Plan released in early 2021 emphasises the importance of involving foreign investors to realise sustainable development goals in the coming five years. The Chinese government has released supplementary rules to strengthen the confidence of foreign investors in Chinese PPPs projects. This article sorts out current regulations that directly affect foreign companies’ participation in China’s PPPs projects, further exploring both opportunities and challenges for foreign companies to compete in China’s PPPs market. Keywords: public-private partnerships, PPPs, foreign direct investment, FDI, sustainable development, China

Petra Ferk, Boštjan Ferk

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 16 (2021), Issue 3, Page 255 - 259

Carol Cravero

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 14 (2019), Issue 1, Page 30 - 42

Global challenges increasingly require collaborative state-civil society efforts. The formulation and delivery of public policies are no longer the prerogative of the public administration alone. Instead, civil society might play an important role in public policies, including buying practices. Although examples of civil society’s involvement already exist in some public procurement frameworks, its potential is still underexploited or even neglected as to specific public procurement’s stages or purposes. Whilst some specific provisions have been enacted to ensure its effective participation in public procurement to enhance transparency, civil society involvement in buying processes might help fostering sustainability. This paper specifically analyses the questions on how and when (ie at what procurement stage) the involvement of civil society is/can be provided and for what purpose(s) in the light of the 2018 OECD-MAPS and the MDBs guidance documents with a particular focus integrity pacts. Keywords: Sustainable public procurement; Civil society; Integrity.

Beata Faracik

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 184 - 197

Despite many efforts being put in the recent years into the reform of the public procurement legislation both at the European and national level in Poland, the increase in the use of sustainable public procurement is disproportionally low. This article looks therefore at the non-legal barriers that affect the use of the sustainable public procurement (including, although not exclusively social clauses, green clauses), based on the research conducted in Poland. It concludes with suggestions of possible solutions and role of non-state actors in stimulating the use of Sustainable Public Procurement. Keywords: Sustainable public procurement; Social clauses; Non-legal barriers; Human rights; Poland.

Dagmar Sigurðardóttir

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 358 - 364

Pedro Telles, Grith Skovgaard Ølykke

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 239 - 252

This article analyses the conceptual link between law and compliance, exploring the different theories and types of compliance (corporate, State and regulatory) and how they can be found today within the EU legal public procurement framework. The analytical focus is on Directive 2014/24/EU and within it how sustainable requirements have increased the level of compliance required, particularly regulatory compliance. Compliance was already present in previous EU public procurement frameworks, but its extent on Directive 2014/24/EU leads the authors to consider the current legal framework as subject to substantial regulatory compliance obligations external to the process of procurement. In short, procurement has been transformed in a way to enforce regulatory obligations that are not intrinsic to the process of buying. This leads to the conclusion that questions such as the cost and trade offs from imposing compliance obligations to public and private bodies warrant further research, particularly at the legal, economic and political science intersection.