Europe must chose: procurement for the lowest price, or procurement for people.

Public procurement represents more than 14% of EU GDP, amounting to over €2.4 trillion per year. Yet most contracts are still awarded based on price alone. IndustriAll Europe warns that this “race to the bottom” must end. Our newly adopted position paper argues that procurement must become a leverage for good quality jobs, fair competition and a re-industrialised Europe prepared for the green and digital transitions.

Core Demands: Toward a Socially Responsible, European Procurement

IndustriAll Europe calls on EU decision-makers to revise procurement rules so that they include:

  • An end to price-only awarding. All public tenders must integrate binding social and environmental criteria.
  • Mandatory social conditionalities. Bidders should commit to collective bargaining, decent wages, safe working conditions, job security, union rights, gender equality, and provisions for training, apprenticeships and just-transition.
  • A strong “Buy European” principle. Public contracts should demand a substantial proportion of European-origin or added-value content, especially in strategic sectors.
  • Robust monitoring and enforcement. Effective oversight and sanctions are essential to prevent social dumping and guarantee respect for social standards.

Why It Matters

Although Directive 2014/24/EU already contains a social clause, implementation across Member States remains inconsistent. Procurement is more than a bureaucratic instrument, it is a powerful tool for delivering the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal, supporting industrial renewal and promoting social justice.

Reformed procurement rules can help deliver:

  • Good Quality jobs and fair pay,
  • Socially responsible and sustainable European industries,
  • Protection against social dumping,
  • Support for re-industrialisation and European strategic autonomy,
  • Skills development and just-transition opportunities for workers adapting to industrial change.

Facing the Challenges - and the Opportunity

The debate on European preference, or local content, is closely linked to the need for decent work and strong social conditionalities in public procurement. IndustriAll Europe supports the principle of a significant mandatory share of European content in public purchase. At the same time, we recognise that European preference alone cannot solve growing global trade tensions.

In a world of complex, interconnected value chains, defining “European content” requires careful technical work. But the principle remains vital: industrial policy must consistently support European added value and quality jobs, across all sectors and related value chains, and beyond those sectors considered strategic. And above all: without proper enforcement, even ambitious rules can remain empty promises.

IndustriAll Europe is already working to define what “Made in the Europe” should mean, and this is a necessary step if procurement is to become a real industrial and social lever.

A Call to Action

We urge the European Commission, the European Parliament and Member States to treat the upcoming procurement reform as a once-in-a-decade opportunity. By embedding binding social, environmental and local-content criteria, and by ensuring effective enforcement, procurement can finally be transformed from a cost-cutting mechanism into a driver of quality jobs, fair competition and a sustainable, resilient European industrial base.

Europe must chose: procurement for the lowest price, or procurement for people.

From Price to People: Public Procurement as a Tool for Quality Jobs and Sustainability: EN DE FR