New EC guidance on green purchasing for road transport
Vehicles are purchased or used by many public authorities, and play a role in the delivery of other contracts such as for construction, landscaping, waste management, social care, facilities management and highways maintenance.
Specialised vehicles, such as buses and waste collection trucks, are examples of market sectors where public demand may be particularly influential in moving towards lower emissions and greater fuel efficiency (source).
In January, the European Commission (EC) published new guidance to help support public authorities in Europe with their public procurement decisions for cars, buses and trucks. The new guidance comes in the form of EU Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria and is an update of previous guidance issued in 2012.
The updated criteria have been considerably broadened in scope, now covering purchases, leases and rentals of vehicles and related mobility services.
The latter covers services such as car sharing, taxis, combined mobility services, and cycles. The new EU guidance will complement the soon to be approved requirements for cars and buses from the EU Clean Vehicles Directive.
Successful ‘trilogue’ discussions (informal tripartite meetings between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission) on 11 February 2019 have paved the way for a final vote on the agreed deal in the Parliament - provisionally scheduled for 6 April 2019.
To read the transport-related GPP guidance, click here. Read the full GPP criteria here.
Read more on the ongoing EU Clean Vehicles Directive discussions here.
This article originally appeared in the GPP News Alert, February 2019. Read it all here.
