Established in 2011, the International Working Group on Ethical Public Procurement (IWGEPP) is a collaboration between 45 organisations made up of public procurement practitioners, sustainability experts, policy makers, scholars, NGOs, multi-stakeholder initiatives, trade unions and civil society organisations from several countries. Electronics Watch is also a member.

IWGEPP welcomes the European Commission's proposal for a Public Procurement Act, as it contains several promising changes which may help address concerns it has previously raised. Specifically, IWGEPP is pleased to see a move away from lowest price as the predominant award criterion, the recognition that working conditions in global supply chains are relevant to public contracts. It also welcomes steps taken to provide more clarity on the link to the subject matter, as well as efforts to strengthen supply chain transparency and capacity of practitioners.

To ensure the public procurement process can be effectively used to identify and address human rights risks in supply chains, IWGEPP makes some specific recommendations to strengthen the Act. These include the introduction of mandatory social conditionalities to promote fair working conditions and accountability throughout supply chains. It also calls on EU decision-makers to give meaningful weight to social and environmental criteria, to reward bidders that invest resources in HREDD and responsible production.

You can read the full statement here.