Browsing by Author "Lumiaho, Vilma"

Public authorities have significant purchasing power in Europe: they spend approximately 1.8 trillion euros annually, which constitutes around 14 % of the EU’s gross domestic product. By harnessing and utilizing this buying power to select goods and services with lesser negative impacts on the environment, remarkable strides can be made in contribution to the combat against climate change and other environmental concerns. In the context of pursuing sustainability through public contracts, a key concept in this thesis is Green Public Procurement (GPP). The economic importance of the public procurement market makes regulation in this realm an effective tool. However, the legitimacy of using public contracts for the purposes of openly promoting environmental objectives has, for a long time, been a subject of animated debate. While the 2014 reform of the Public Procurement Directives was successful in providing extended latitude for contracting authorities to apply environmental considerations in public procurement, the legal framework simultaneously became more complex than ever. Consequently, the subject of this thesis on a broader scale is to address the question of what is the extent to which the current legislative framework limits the discretion of contracting authorities in pursuing secondary policies, such and environmental objectives. This extensive topic is subdivided into the following research questions: (1) How can environmental criteria be applied in the current legal framework? (2) What limitations does the link to the subject matter requirement pose on green public procurement, and how should the requirement be interpreted? (3) Can the use of environmental criteria amount to state aid? (4) Can environmental criteria constitute discrimination with the effect of hindering trade as stipulated in TFEU and the Public Procurement Directive? The methodological approach adopted in this thesis is that of legal dogmatism. In this vein, the analysis builds upon a thorough examination of the ECJ’s case law, legal literature as well as the Public Procurement Directive (2014/24(EU). Because any discussion in this area is incomplete without an understanding of the practical context, reference is also made to pre-existing statistical studies on the use of green criteria. In addition to answering the previously presented research questions, the author ventures to identify the pressure points in the current legislative framework that may effectively hinder efforts towards greener purchasing as well as to provide some insights into potential needs for reform.