The European Green Deal and Public Procurement Law: Its extraterritorial reach beyond the EU’s borders

Abstract

Public procurement takes centre stage in achieving the green objectives of the European Green Deal (EGD). The European Commission focuses on the need to put the purchasing power of public authorities, valued at 14–20% of the European Union (EU) GDP, to use for the achievement of green objectives when buying goods, services and works. Fighting climate change through procurement inevitably surpasses the natural borders of the EU. With the reforms of the EU procurement rules in 2014 and emphasized by the EGD, came the promise of extending the reach of these rules down supply chains across the globe, troubled with human rights violations and non-climate friendly production processes. The chapter investigates how the Green Deal is transforming the EU’s approach to public procurement. It explores the extraterritorial effects of public procurement under the Deal with reference to supply chains, the requirement of the link to the subject matter and the life cycle of a procurement beyond the EU, and the exclusion of economic operators and rejection of tenders due to failure to comply with environmental law. Finally, the chapter addresses the underlying issue of contract compliance, given that extraterritoriality represents an additional challenge to contract monitoring.