unimelb-nlp/MultiEup-v2 huggingface dataset:
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Evelyn Regner
Country: Netherlands
Language: EN

The next item is the debate on the oral question to the Commission on the role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets by Dragoş Pîslaru on behalf of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Dennis Radtke
Political group: PPE
Country: Spain
Language: DE

Und deswegen finde ich es richtig, dass wir heute bei dieser wichtigen Frage der öffentlichen Auftragsvergabe durchaus mal diese Reißzwecke hier auf den Stuhl des Kommissars legen. Nicht weil ich der Meinung bin, er hätte es persönlich verdient, sondern weil ich der Meinung bin, es für ein Versäumnis halte, dass die Europäische Kommission in dieser Legislaturperiode das Thema öffentliche Auftragsvergabe nicht angepackt hat – gleich aus zwei Gründen: Das eine ist natürlich der soziale Aspekt, gar keine Frage. Wir haben den europäischen Mindestlohn hier beschlossen, vorangebracht. Und natürlich ist die Frage Verknüpfung, Tarifbindung und öffentliche Auftragsvergabe ein ganz wesentliches Element, um für mehr Tarifbindung zu sorgen. Denn wir reden ja hier über öffentliche Gelder. Und natürlich ist es gerechtfertigt zu sagen – auch gerade in einer sozialen Marktwirtschaft: Wir wollen öffentliche Gelder in erster Linie an diejenigen vergeben, die sich auch an die Spielregeln der sozialen Marktwirtschaft halten. Aber der zweite Punkt, warum ich es für ein großes Versäumnis halte, ist die Frage der Nachhaltigkeit. Ich komme aus einem Stahlstandort im Ruhrgebiet, und wir haben oft die Diskussion: Wieso haben wir chinesischen Stahl in deutschen Autobahnbrücken und keinen Stahl aus Duisburg? Und die Antwort ist ganz einfach: Weil Stand heute Nachhaltigkeitsfragen dort keine Rolle spielen. Und ich finde, eine Institution wie die EU-Kommission, die den Grünen Deal so hoch aufgehangen hat, die muss auch dafür Sorge tragen, dass das bei der öffentlichen Auftragsvergabe in Zukunft eine Rolle spielt.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Agnes Jongerius
Political group: S-D
Country: Poland
Language: EN

The message of this debate today is we can no longer allow companies to lower their standards while maximising their profits at the expense of workers. Public spending must be conditional on social requirements, respect for collective agreements, for working conditions and for ILO Conventions. Finally, the Commissioner also mentioned the Minimum Wage Directive. We, in this directive, put the threshold of the minimum amount of people covered by collective agreements at 80%. How can we strengthen social, collective bargaining while, on the other hand, maintaining the existing public procurement rules, which limit the push for a higher coverage rate of collective bargaining? I think it's clear it's time for change.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Kim Van Sparrentak
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Denmark
Language: EN

We could try to achieve our social and environmental ambitions through public procurement. But in more than one third of Member States, up to 95 % of tenders are awarded solely on the basis of the lowest price. And this is because social award criteria are voluntary, and using them is considered a legal risk by many, many authorities. But we cannot accept that public money is being spent on cheap tenders and just let workers pay the price. Cleaners, call center workers, nursing home workers, security guards and other essential workers are employed with precarious working conditions with our public money. And because these are huge contracts, they’re impacting entire sectors.  Our national and local governments are fueling a race to the bottom on wages and working conditions. But we can set strong social objectives in Europe. But then if social dumping is government sponsored, a true social Europe is very far from being realised. If the Commission is serious about promoting a social market economy, it should value social progress as much as the functioning of the internal market. So let us use all the tools we have in our toolbox to end precarious work and not stick to the voluntary approach for social conditionalities in procurement, which is doing the opposite.  I call on the Commission to start preparing a revision of the Public Procurement Directive now, and present it early in the next mandate. We need to ensure that there will be no more public contracts granted to companies that have no collective agreements with their workers. And meanwhile, while we change the Public Procurement Directive, maybe we can also stop government sponsoring of the climate catastrophe.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Ádám Kósa
Political group: NI
Country: Poland
Language: HU

Tisztelt Elnök Úr! A társadalmi szempontból felelős közbeszerzés alapelvének megfelelően figyelembe kell venni a társadalmi befogadás, az egyenlő bánásmód, a hozzáférhetőség és a minden felhasználó számára alkalmas kialakítás szempontjait. Ugyanúgy a fogyatékossággal élő személyek jogairól szóló egyezmény szerinti egyetemes tervezés elveinek szempontjait is. Magyarországon az ajánlatkérő a közbeszerzési eljárásban való részvételi jogát fenntarthatja, vagy a kormány által elrendelt esetben köteles fenntartani az olyan védett munkahelyeknek, amelyek a 30 százalékot elérő vagy meghaladó mértékben megváltozott munkaképességű, fogyatékossággal élő vagy hátrányos helyzetű munkavállalót foglalkoztatnak. Ismereteim szerint más tagállamok is élnek hasonló eszközökkel.  Kérem a Bizottságot, hogy a jó gyakorlatok bemutatása során ezeket a példákat ajánlja a többi tagállam számára, mert csak így tudunk ebben a kérdésben előrébb lépni.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Radan Kanev
Political group: PPE
Country: Ireland
Language: EN

Mr President, dear Commissioner, a lot has been said during this debate about the benefits of social criteria in public procurements and reasonable arguments we've heard, and a lot has been already done to grant such award criteria. So I will focus on the risks they raise because there is no perfect solution in the economy, neither are social award criteria a perfect solution. First, it is the risk of discrimination against companies from less wealthy Member States or Member States with lower levels of trade union coverage of social bargaining. Second, I must reiterate, any non-price criteria has a higher, often much, much higher corruption potential. And here, once again, we put at risk countries with less stable rule of law in our Union, and we know from all our debates that such countries exist in in the European Union and maybe more now than a few years ago. And by far the most and important risk that I would like to point out: often, not always, but often, social award criteria in public procurement have quite a high inflation potential. So they might end up providing better income for few and higher prices for many, at the expense of fair competition on the market. And here I must reiterate, finally, that one thing we as a union and our economy, now and in the years to come, at least in the couple of years to come, what we cannot afford is pro-inflation measures, because we have taken many such measures during this and previous terms, and we are facing a huge crisis of the purchasing power of our population, with all its political impact.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Milan Brglez
Political group: S-D
Country: France
Language: SL

Gospod predsednik, spoštovani komisar, kolegice in kolegi! Vsi posamezniki in še posebej država, ki je skrbnica socialnih politik ter upravlja z javnim denarjem, lahko in moramo s svojo potrošnjo vplivati na obnašanje podjetij. Socialno naravnano in družbeno odgovorno gospodarstvo, v katerem veljajo dobri delovni pogoji, dostojne minimalne in druge plače, ter se spodbujajo kolektivna pogajanja, se ne bo izgradilo samo od sebe. Dokler bo edini ter glavni kriterij pri oddaji javnih naročil čim nižja cena, bomo spremljali tekmo do dna glede delovnih pogojev ter vrednotenja dela prek glavnih dobaviteljev in izvajalcev navzdol po dobavni verigi. Krepitev socialnih pravic na enotnem evropskem trgu zahteva enoten evropski pristop ter jasna pravila, ki jih bodo države samozavestno uporabljale pri socialnem pogojevanju vseh javnih naročil. Ena izmed prvih nalog prihodnje Komisije mora zato biti predlog revizije Direktive 2014/24 glede javnega naročanja, da se v njej končno odrazijo zahteve zelene, digitalne, v prvi vrsti pa socialne preobrazbe Evrope. Torej mora vsako javno naročanje tako v Evropski uniji in državah članicah kot po vsej dobavni verigi obvezno upoštevati socialna in trajnostna merila.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Eugenia Rodríguez Palop
Political group: The Left
Country: Netherlands
Language: ES

Señor presidente, diez años después de la aprobación de la Directiva sobre contratación pública, sabemos que prácticamente la mitad de los procedimientos de licitación en la Unión Europea se siguen resolviendo exclusivamente sobre la base del precio. Cuando se introducen criterios de sostenibilidad, su contenido está limitado por la interpretación que se hace de la libre competencia y, además, como tienen que estar vinculados al objeto del contrato, se excluyen cláusulas generales sobre derechos humanos, derechos de los trabajadores o de las mujeres. Vaya..., que es fácil boicotear la Directiva por la puerta de atrás, obviando que el dumping social también es una forma de competencia desleal. Hablamos de un instrumento que representa casi el 15 % del PIB europeo, así que ya va siendo hora de asumir la necesidad de su reforma, señor comisario, y de reconocer que, sin la imposición de obligaciones, no va a cambiar nada y que muchos otros objetivos de esa Europa social que con tanto boato se pregona —como la tasa de cobertura de la negociación colectiva, por ejemplo— no son más que eslóganes vacíos si no contamos con instrumentos que los hagan efectivos.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Marc Tarabella
Political group: NI
Country: Austria
Language: FR

Monsieur le Président, j'ai eu l'immense honneur, mais aussi la lourde tâche, d'être en charge de la refonte de la législation des marchés publics il y a tout juste dix ans, puisqu'ils furent votés le 15 janvier 2014. Notre but à l'époque était clairement de lutter contre le dumping social et la concurrence déloyale dans les marchés de travaux, mais aussi d'augmenter la qualité et l'efficacité des services aux citoyens, faciliter l'accès des marchés aux PME, garantir le respect des bonnes conditions de travail et des critères environnementaux. Après un long combat politique, le texte établissait notamment de manière claire que le critère pour les achats publics soit basé essentiellement sur la qualité et non plus systématiquement sur le prix le plus bas. C'est essentiel en matière de lutte contre le dumping social, mais bien sûr aussi en matière de conditions de travail, tout en garantissant aux citoyens un ouvrage bien effectué. Mais comme vous, j'ai lu les conclusions de la récente étude du Parlement européen sur l'impact social des marchés publics et constate avec beaucoup d'amertume qu'aujourd'hui encore, les pouvoirs publics sont confrontés à des obstacles juridiques et à des incertitudes lorsqu'ils tentent d'appliquer les critères d'attribution sociaux et environnementaux. Ce n'est pas tolérable et je demande instamment à la Commission européenne de régler cette situation qui va totalement à l'encontre de ce qu'a voulu le législateur et à l'encontre de l'intérêt général.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Daniela Rondinelli
Political group: S-D
Country: Spain
Language: IT

Signor Presidente, signor Commissario Schmit, onorevoli colleghi, io vorrei porre la questione della condizionalità sociale negli appalti pubblici, che è una condizione ineludibile per garantire non soltanto le norme europee e nazionali del diritto del lavoro, ma anche una concorrenza leale nell'ambito del mercato interno tra imprese europee e tra queste ultime e le aziende dei paesi terzi che operano nel nostro continente. È assurdo che proprio le forze politiche che si dichiarano difensore dell'interesse nazionale non sostengano questa misura – infatti non stanno neanche partecipando al dibattito – permettendo così alle aziende non europee, che fanno del dumping sociale il loro principale strumento di competitività, di beneficiare dei nostri soldi pubblici facendo quindi concorrenza sleale e mettendo fuori gioco le imprese europee, quelle sane, oneste e rispettose della legge. È fondamentale ribadire la connessione evidente tra piccoli appalti pubblici e la loro maggiore capacità di controllo da parte degli enti pubblici rispetto ai mega-appalti, nei quali spesso si annidano, dietro il fumoso strumento del subappalto, le peggiori forme di abuso se non addirittura di infiltrazione della criminalità organizzata. L'accesso ad appalti pubblici di importi ridotti, infatti, sostengono le piccole imprese e gli artigiani del territorio, creando un legame forte con i cittadini e le comunità locali e diventando così benessere, prosperità e valore aggiunto per tutti. Da qui, quindi, nasce la nostra richiesta di rivedere la direttiva sugli appalti pubblici del 2014, perché solo così avremo uno strumento utile per la crescita dell'economia reale e una reale esigibilità delle tutele sociali e del lavoro.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Alex Agius Saliba
Political group: S-D
Country: Malta
Language: MT

Sur President, huwa importanti ħafna li l-Ewropa tkun post eċċellenti fejn wieħed jgħix, fejn wieħed jaħdem, fejn trabbi lil uliedek, tieħu ħsieb il-maħbubin tiegħek, u anke tirtira u tixjieħ. Ewropa li tattwa l-Pilastru Ewropew tad-Drittijiet Soċjali fil-prattika. Ewropa li verament tappoġġja lill-ħaddiema u lit-trade unions u li tkun waħda bbażata fuq paga ġusta, xogħol ta’ kwalità, sigurtà u rispett għad-drittijiet fundamentali tal-ħaddiema tagħna. Ir-regoli tal-UE dwar il-flus u l-akkwist pubbliku huma kruċjali sabiex inkunu nistgħu niksbu dan kollu. Il-flus pubbliċi jridu jappoġġjaw il-ħolqien ta’ impjiegi ta’ kwalità u jappoġġjaw in-negozjar kollettiv. Il-flus pubbliċi jridu jmorru għal operaturi ekonomiċi li jirrispettaw lill-ħaddiema u d-drittijiet tat-trade unions, li jinnegozjaw mat-trade unions, u l-ħaddiema tagħhom (inklużi ħaddiema tas-sottokuntratturi tagħhom) li għandhom ikunu wkoll koperti minn ftehimiet kollettivi. Għal dan il-għan, irridu nirrevedu r-regoli Ewropej dwar l-akkwist pubbliku u nintroduċu kundizzjonalità soċjali b’saħħitha marbuta ma’ kull forma ta’ għajnuna mill-Istat, finanzjament pubbliku, investimenti, u appoġġi għan-negozji tagħna. Ir-regoli tal-akkwist pubbliku jeħtieġ li jiggarantixxu li l-offerti jappoġġaw il-ħolqien ta’ impjiegi ta’ kwalità u jippromwovu negozjar kollettiv, kundizzjonijiet tax-xogħol imtejba, u taħriġ ta’ kwalità. Kundizzjonalitajiet soċjali b’saħħithom għandhom jidhru fir-regoli finanzjarji kollha li jirregolaw l-użu tal-fondi tal-Unjoni Ewropea, kemm mill-baġit tal-Unjoni Ewropea u kif ukoll dawk iġġenerati minn barra l-baġit. Il-flus pubbliċi m’għandhomx jibqgħu joħolqu tellieqa sal-qiegħ iżda minflok, jintużaw biex jiġi attwat il-Pilastru Ewropew tad-Drittijiet Soċjali.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Estrella Durá Ferrandis
Political group: S-D
Country: Netherlands
Language: ES

﻿Señor presidente, señor comisario, a la vista de las transiciones verdes y digitales que está experimentando el mercado laboral, la responsabilidad social debe ser una prioridad fundamental para asegurar condiciones laborales justas y dignas y para ser coherentes con el nuevo plan de economía social. La Administración pública no puede ser la excepción. Algunos grupos políticos argumentan que la eficiencia y la eficacia deben ser los únicos criterios que considerar al adjudicar contratos públicos. Desde mi grupo político, sin embargo, creemos que la eficiencia y la equidad no son conceptos mutuamente excluyentes. La condicionalidad social en la adjudicación de contratos públicos garantiza la creación de empleo digno, el respeto a los derechos laborales y la inclusión de sectores desfavorecidos. Es necesaria, por tanto, la revisión de la Directiva sobre contratación pública actual para dar mayor seguridad jurídica a los criterios sociales en la adjudicación de contratos públicos. Esta cláusula puede funcionar como un instrumento eficaz, tal y como ya se ha señalado, para aumentar la cobertura de la negociación colectiva de acuerdo con la Directiva europea sobre salarios mínimos. ¿Considera la Comisión, por lo tanto, una revisión de la actual Directiva? ¿Prevé reforzar aún más la cláusula social de la Directiva para garantizar su cumplimiento? Es verdad que se han hecho cosas, pero necesitamos cosas más eficaces.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Mick Wallace
Political group: The Left
Country: Germany
Language: EN

Mr President, the EU public procurement directives allow contracting authorities to promote social inclusion, the protection of the environment, and look to ensure the compliance of tender awards with social, labour and environmental legislation. However, even with these directives incorporated into law in the various Member States, a public procurement process can result in disaster. In 2019, in the Irish Parliament, I highlighted several problems with the procurement process for the National Children’s Hospital. I showed how the costs were going to escalate off the Richter scale. The hospital wouldn’t be built for 2.2 billion when it should have cost about half that, and that’s what’s happening. The government could have revisited the contract, but it refused for political reasons, at great cost to the Irish people, I might say. The big contractor has robbed the people blind and it is just down to the incompetence of the politicians involved.
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Clare Daly
Political group: The Left
Country: France
Language: EN

Mr President, I think the title of this debate in some ways really sounds somewhat like a bit of a deluded fantasy when we all know that across Europe, social rights and workers’ conditions are under assault like never before, and public procurement, far from being the great leveller, is actually a contributing factor to this inequality. It’s legitimised theft on a phenomenal scale. It’s not only that jobs are priced on the basis of bleeding workers dry, but also the projects themselves end up costing phenomenally more than they should do. Contracts under EU rules mean driving out the small suppliers; the big boys move in, price the job too cheaply, and then add in clauses where they can ratchet up the costs later on. And as a result, as my colleague has said, we’ve a children’s hospital in Ireland which is about to become the most expensive in Europe, well over EUR 2 billion, a MetroLink project, 300 million without a track being laid. Is it any wonder that the results came out today, that 1 % of the population own a third of the wealth, while the working poor continue to slave on?
Debate: The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Nicolas Schmit
Language: EN

You know, I was a labour minister and I was confronted several times with major labour work accidents. Probably these companies always were the best offering, lowest price. But then about working conditions. Well, they did not really respect them. Sometimes it went well and sometimes some workers just died or were hurt. And that’s why we cannot just base the spending of public money on one single criteria, which is price, because price is not a guarantee, as it was said for competition, at least not when we say fair competition. Because if you’re cheating, if you are not respecting labour rights, if you are not respecting protection of your workers, well, you will have the lowest price. But at what price? For whom?  That’s why we have really to think how we create this balance, how we defend better the issue of social criteria. Environmental criteria is another one. If you spend money precisely to recycle your stuff, if you spend money to respect the environmental criteria, yes, this has a cost. And then if you have decided to do that, you may be excluded from any tender from any market. And that’s why, in this much more complex world, you just cannot base the spending of billions on one single indicator, which is price, because precisely, you never know who is paying at the end this price.  I think that this is a debate which should have some follow up, some consequence where we have to reflect how we integrate these criteria better in our public procurement in a way where, finally, those who decide get more security, more legal security, because sometimes there is the issue, well, if I integrate some other criteria that might be legal cases coming up and so on. So we have to reflect how better to integrate this in order to make sure that social considerations or environmental considerations have or can be fully taken into account. I agree that the issue of people with a disability is an important one. If you employ many people with a disability or some people with a disability, you may be less competitive and your price may be higher. But what you are giving back to society is also a value. And this is a value which has to be recognised absolutely, especially when it is about public money. Therefore I think that the Commission is committed to looking at whether further specific actions are needed, even of a legislative nature, which means that we have to look at the present texts, we need to combine the objectives of simplification of the public procurement procedures with measures to align public procurement with the strategic objectives and also among the strategic objectives. This includes, absolutely, the social considerations which have an impact on our society, on the prosperity of our society as well as the environmental dimension as we talk about the green transition.