National Procurement Standards

Here you will find descriptions of national procurement standards for each project partner country.
Please choose a country to get an introduction on legislation, programmes, and existing situation.

Questionnaire on green procurement

1.Estimated amount spent yearly on public procurement in expressed in percentage of gross domestic product (GDP):

• Austria:
  • 
    
• Czech Republic:
  • 20 %
• Germany:
  • 17 %
• Italy:
  • 17 %
• Latvia:
  • 
    
• Slovenia:
  • 12.98 %
• Sweden:
  • 20 - 23 %

2.National strategies aiming at energy efficient procurement and binding targets therein:

• Austria:
  • Development of "15a-Aktionsplan": Article 7 describes energy efficient criteria for public procurement in order to follow the EU-directive 2006/32/EG e.g. consideration of LCC, contracting, must criteria for purchase of energy efficient appliances (Source: Vereinbarung zwischen Bund und Ländern gemäß Art. 15a B-VG zur Umsetzung der Richtlinie 2006/32/EG über Endenergieeffizienz, Artikel 2)
  • Development of "Ökoleitfaden" with requirements, recommendations and considerations on energy efficient criteria, relevant for public procurement of the regional government and its institutions (not for municipalities)
• Czech Republic:
  • No national strategy or action plan
  • Government Regulation No. 720/2000 of 19 July 2000 addresses the issue of sales promotion and advancement and utilization of environmentally friendly products
  • Act No.137/2006 on Public Procurement states that environmental friendliness of a product should be included in the criteria in the evaluation of the bids
• Germany:
  • In the national action plan for energy efficiency from September 2008 is a target for green procurement stated, but no specific figures are given
• Italy:
  • Since 2000 a modernisation process for the Public Administration is under development, including the project “rationalisation of the purchasing of goods and services of the Public Administrations”, promoted by the Ministry of Economy and Finance through CONSIP.
  • The Interministerial Decree n. 135, was issued on 11th April 2007 adopting the National Action Plan on GPP. The Plan identifies priority products/ service categories for which a set of green “minimum criteria” for purchasing has to be identified and made mandatory through specific implementing Decrees.
  • The results achieved by the implementation of the plan will be assessed by the use of the indicator being drawn up by the European Commission and Eurostat, which will probably be used to calculate the value of sustainable tenders compared with the total number of public tenders. It will be necessary to ensure that:
  • a) the minimum environmental criteria, when available, are incorporated into CONSIP calls for tender where technically feasible, taking CONSIP’s program of activities into account;
  • b) at least 30% of the regions, provinces, metropolitan cities and municipalities with a population of over 15 000 adopt procurement procedures complying with the minimum environmental criteria;
  • c) the bodies managing national parks and protected maritime areas that come under the Ministry of the Environment incorporate the minimum environmental criteria in their purchasing procedures.
• Latvia:
  • 
    
• Slovenia:
  • National efficiency energy action plan for the period 2008 - 2016 (www.mop.gov.si/fileadmin/mop.gov.si/pageuploads/dokumenti/akcijski_nacrt_energetska_ucinkovitost.pdf)
  • National action plan for green public procurement for the period 2009 - 2012 (www.mf.gov.si/slov/javnar/uredba/Akcijski%20ZeJN.PDF), adopted on May 21, 2009, set the targets for inclusion of environmental aspects in public procurement, related to energy efficiency, lower CO₂ and other emissions, recycling, environment and waste management schemes etc. The targets are defined for 8 priority groups of products and services for the year 2012 and represent the portion (in volume) of green public procurement in regard to conventional public procurement:
  • Construction - 30 %
  • Cleaning products and services - 60 %
  • Office IT equipment - 95%
  • Transport - 40%
  • Energy - 100 %
  • Furniture - 50 %
  • Paper and printing services - 70 %
  • Food and catering services - 40 %
• Sweden:
  • Swedish Strategy for Sustainable Development. Green public procurement (2006/07: 54). Environmental Code

3.Mandatory integration of life cycle cost calculation as part of the procurement process:

• Austria:
  • No, but in discussion e.g. "15 a B-VG"
• Czech Republic:
  • No
• Germany:
  • No, but recommended
• Italy:
  • No
• Latvia:
  • 
    
• Slovenia:
  • No
• Sweden:
  • No, but recommended

4.Specialized state policies supporting energy efficient procurement:

• Austria:
  • Minimum Energy Performance Standards: binding regional energy efficient criteria have to be fulfilled e.g. energy performance indicator or regional requirement "OIB-Richtlinie" for buildings, circulation pumps, etc.
• Czech Republic:
  • Currently the Czech Government is preparing „Rules of implementation of environmental criteria for public procurement“(„Pravidla uplatňování environmentálních kritérií při zadávání veřejných zakázek“) as a part of its non-legislative activities. It will be applicable for the public institutions, but will be also available for voluntary use by private organisations. In its appendices of the last proposal, there are included detailed methodologies for the purchase of furniture and office technologies. Similar specifications for the other sectors are planned to be prepared.
• Germany:
  • On federal level: Allgemeine Verwaltungsvorschrift zur Beschaffung energieeffizienter Produkte und Dienstleistungen vom 17.Januar 2008 – no specific criteria
  • On state level: legislation in some states – no specific criteria
  • Information websites and campaigns
• Italy:
  • In addition to the information given in Q. 2, in Italy there is the Ministerial Decree 15th April 2009 n.33 (substituting Decree n.185, 18 October 2007) creating the “Steering Committee” of the Action Plan including experts from APAT, CONSIP, ENEA and the Regions and a “Tavolo di lavoro permanente”: a permanent consultation forum for stakeholders (such as PA, Agenda 21, etc).
• Latvia:
  • 
    
• Slovenia:
  • Draft of Regulation on green public procurement (www.mf.gov.si/slov/javnar/predpisi_predlogi.htm), which will determine mandatory provisions on inclusion of minimum environmental requirements in public procurement. The regulation, which is based on EU GPP Training Toolkit , is currently in intergovernmental procedure and is expected to be adopted this April 2010.
  • Various education, training and awareness raising events shall be organised.
• Sweden:
  • In March 2009 the Government presented an action plan to improve the environmental requirements in public procurement. The goal is that the public sector should accelerate progress.
  • In connection with the action plan being put forward, the government gave mandate to the Environmental Protection Agency to continuously monitor the development of green public procurement

5.Responsibility concerning public purchase:

• Austria:
  • It is fragmented (federal states, municipalities)
• Czech Republic:
  • All governmental and public organizations from the president’s office, the government, ministries, regional councils, city councils up to schools
• Germany:
  • In Germany there are about 30.000 different contracting authorities reaching from professional departments to persons who buy something once in a while besides their normal work.
• Italy:
  • Responsibility concerning public purchase can be both at centralized (for the central PA) or at the local (regional) level, or even at the level of the single purchasing institution.
• Latvia:
  • 
    
• Slovenia:
  • Public procurement in Slovenia is fragmented. There are approximately 3.000 Slovenian contracting authorities, most of them are fairly small and do not have specialised procurement officers. These contracting authorities are categorised as follows:
  • 1.authorities of the Republic of Slovenia and of Slovenian local communities,
  • 2.public funds, public agencies, public institutes,
  • 3.public commercial institutions (public enterprises), and
  • 4.other bodies governed by public law.
  • There are however, some cases of centralised public procurement in the area of health care and on government level, most of which is carried out as joint public procurement either by Ministry of Health or by Ministry of Public Administration
• Sweden:
  • It is fragmented.

6.Control authorities for public procurement concerning energy efficiency requirements:

• Austria:
  • Landesrechnungshof (referring to point 4)
• Czech Republic:
  • 
    
• Germany:
  • No.
• Italy:
  • The monitoring and market surveillance actions is under the responsibility of the central and regional Agencies in charge of public procurement for central/local administration (such as CONSIP) as well as the Ministry for Sustainable Development for those products whose energy efficiency is under an EU or national policy.
• Latvia:
  • 
    
• Slovenia:
  • No
• Sweden:
  • No

7.Consequences for not fulfilling obligatory energy efficiency targets in the public procurement process:

• Austria:
  • BZ-Mittel-Erlass
• Czech Republic:
  • No consequences or obligatory targets.
• Germany:
  • No consequences or obligatory targets.
• Italy:
  • information not available.
• Latvia:
  • 
    
• Slovenia:
  • Targets regarding solely energy efficiency in public procurement have not been set (yet).
• Sweden:
  • Is regulated by different laws and regulations e.g. building regulation.

8.Barriers hindering implementation of energy efficiency requirements during public procurements:

• Austria:
  • any further criteria makes the process of procurement more "complicated"/complex
  • regional purchase preferred (especially by municipalities)
  • more ee-criteria minimise the number of bidders (tenderer)
• Czech Republic:
  • As including of the environmental criteria as a part of the procurement requirements is not compulsory, but only recommended, there is a lack of motivation by the responsible employees.
  • This is true especially in the situation, where there are lacking capacities at the institutions and organizations to implement environmental criteria as a part of the procurement.
  • The appropriate evaluation tools which would make the evaluation fast and effective are often not available.
• Germany:
  • Lack of necessity, interest, training
  • The buyer doesn’t have to pay for the operating costs
  • No monitoring, no penalty
  • Not enough exchange of good practice examples and experiences
  • Fear of legal proceedings, no green purchasing policies
• Italy:
  • lack of knowledge/information and few money available for purchasing of goods/services in the PA
• Latvia:
  • 
    
• Slovenia:
  • lack of knowledge
  • lack of life cycle costing thinking
  • no long term planning
  • lack of good public procurement practises regarding energy efficiency
  • lack of capacity (human resources)
• Sweden:
  • education and knowledge of purchasers and tenders

9.Recommendations to support a higher level of consideration for energy efficiency criteria in public procurement on state and EU level:

• Austria:
  • Information - awareness raising
• Czech Republic:
  • 
    
• Germany:
  • National helpdesk, monitoring
• Italy:
  • Information dissemination, knowledge improvement, implementation of the PAN-GPP
• Latvia:
  • 
    
• Slovenia:
  • In order to encourage consideration of energy efficiency criteria in public procurement various education, training and awareness events shall be organised at national level. Typical tender documentation will also probably be prepared and issued. At EU level we find that twining projects would be very useful as they are a great way of passing knowledge and good practises from advanced and progressive member states to the less progressive member states.
• Sweden:
  • Education and trainings in different ways