EU ruling opens way for fair trade criteria in public procurement
11 May 2012
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The Fairtrade Foundation has today warmly welcomed a ruling from the European Court of Justice that gives public procurers across Europe absolute legal clarity on public buyer’s right to demand Fairtrade or fairly traded goods.
In yesterday’s ruling the European Court of Justice stated that authorities tendering for new business can use criteria based on considerations of ‘an environmental or social nature.’
The Court also explicitly stated it is possible to refer in award criteria “to the fact that a product is of fair trade origin”. This means that public authorities can give preference to a bidder who includes Fair Trade criteria.
The judgment also confirms that contracting authorities can refer to the environmental characteristics of Fair Trade (e.g. no pesticides, no Genetically Modified Organisms) as part of the technical specifications of a call for tenders.
Ed Butcher, public procurement expert at the Fairtrade Foundation said:
“Even before this ruling thousands of trail-blazing public buyers up and down the UK were already buying Fairtrade in volume, bringing a real difference to producers in developing countries."
“What this ruling does is remove any lingering doubts about the legality of making production ethics a buying criteria. Procurers are a naturally cautious bunch, therefore this new legal clarity now paves the way for all public food and cotton buying to be as ethical as possible."
“Coming at the same time as the EC is in the process of rewriting its procurement rules, it’s a welcome and useful contribution to this important debate about how public spending is used to the global public good.”
There are over five hundred Fairtrade Towns in the UK, who, as part of their declaration, commit to buying Fairtrade products. This ruling is good news for them and the whole Fair Trade movement as it clarifies the inclusion of Fair Trade considerations all along the tendering process under the current EU Public Procurement Directive.
The decision ends a dispute between the Dutch Government and the European Commission. In 2008 the Province of North Holland published a tendering procedure for a public contract for the supply and management of automatic coffee machines, which referred to products bearing labels such as Max Havelaar – the Dutch Fairtrade sister label. The European Commission referred the Netherlands to the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2010 for non-compliance with the EU public procurement rules.
Fairtrade will continue lobbying on the EU Public Procurement Directive. An important issue is whether in the future EU rules, technical specifications can refer to social aspects in the production process.
Full details of the ruling here.
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More information from Eileen Maybin, Head of Media Relations on 020 7440 7686/07770 957 451 or Alyson Rose on alyson.rose@fairtrade.org.uk
- ENDS -
More information from Eileen Maybin, Head of Media Relations on 020 7440 7686/07770 957 451 or Alyson Rose on alyson.rose@fairtrade.org.uk
