Reform options for the EU public procurement directive

This report analyzes the shortcomings of the current European Union public procurement directive in enabling green public procurement (GPP) and proposes a roadmap of reforms to align public spending with climate, circularity, and competitiveness goals.

• The current EU public procurement framework is characterized by voluntary GPP, fragmented rules, and legal uncertainty, which results in most contracts being awarded based on the lowest price and few tenders including environmental criteria. This is despite public authorities in the European Union spending nearly EUR 2 trillion annually.
• The report proposes several high-level recommendations for reform: establishing GPP as the default via a comply-or-explain approach with clear targets, linking 'Buy European' preference rules to environmental performance, simplifying and harmonizing rules across EU sectoral legislation, and improving monitoring through better data systems and professionalization of contracting authorities.

APA

Casier,, R. B. E. (2025). Reform options for the EU public procurement directive. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/reform-options-eu-public-procurement

Chicago

Casier,, Ronja Bechauf,Sharmila Erizaputri,Liesbeth. Reform options for the EU public procurement directive. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2025. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/reform-options-eu-public-procurement.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Casier, |first1=Ronja Bechauf,Sharmila Erizaputri,Liesbeth |title=Reform options for the EU public procurement directive |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=28 November 2025 |url=https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/reform-options-eu-public-procurement |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{casier2025reform, author = {Casier,, Ronja Bechauf,Sharmila Erizaputri,Liesbeth}, title = {{Reform options for the EU public procurement directive}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2025}, month = nov, url = {https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/reform-options-eu-public-procurement}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }