On 9 September 2025, in the context of the upcoming review of the EU Public Procurement Directive (PPD), the European Parliament adopted a resolution, which takes into account many points the European Council of Engineers Chambers (ECEC) has advocated for: moving away from the lowest-price principle, improving access for small and micro-enterprises to procurement procedures and better consideration of the diversity of (intellectual) services such as engineering services. The European Council of Engineers Chambers (ECEC) welcomes this resolution, which emphasises important issues and key principles that will guide the upcoming revision of the PPD.
Highlights of the European Parliament report on Public Procurement
- Point 38. Notes that awarding public contracts based solely on the lowest price might encourage unfair competition an that this is at the expense of quality, sustainability and social standards; insists that more contracts, especially for intellectual services, should be awarded based on the best price-ratio, through use of MEAT criteria, meaning that tenders should be evaluated not only on price but also on factors such as quality, regional impact or continuity of supply of complex and essential services; adds that non-price considerations should be given a substantial weight in the overall rating an final decision on the award of contracts, especially for engineering services, which are essential to ensure high-quality profitable projects in the long term. While protection innovation and deterring the submission of abnormally low tenders.
- Point 57. Underlines that abnormally low tenders, especially from non-EU bidders, may compromise the effective execution of public contracts, endanger quality standards, and pose risks to national security, particularly in the context of critical infrastructure; calls for stronger measures to detect and address such bids, including through independent cost assessments and clear obligations for contracting authorities to reject offers where the justification for the unusually low price is insufficient or unconvincing; calls, in this context, on the Commission to put forward a clear and harmonised methodology for assessing the notion of ‘abnormally low price’, in order to provide contracting authorities with greater legal certainty and practical guidance when evaluating tenders;
- Point 77. Calls for enhanced support mechanisms for very small entities, SMEs, start-ups and social economy actors to enable them to effectively compete in public tenders, including technical assistance programmes, and capacity building for SMEs, start-ups and social enterprises;
- Point 79. Stresses that the EU public procurement framework must ensure equitable access for SMEs, social economy entities and local businesses by promoting simplified procedures, including by ensuring that companies are not required to re-submit publicly available information in their tender application and by applying proportional requirements based on the local context; mainstreaming the division of contracts into smaller lots to foster competition and to prevent dominance by large entities, while recognising that contracts should not be divided where there is a genuine technological or efficiency rationale for not doing so; underlines that this division into smaller lots is of particular relevance for engineering, construction and planning services as it can strengthen competition, safeguard participation opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises and microenterprises, and enable the targeted use of specialised expertise; emphasises the need for clear guidelines determining when non-division of contracts is justified; notes that the division of lots is also an effective means of preventing unfeasible subcontractor chains;
Luxembourg Declaration on Public Procurement
In May 2025, the representative organisations of the architectural and consulting engineering professions adopted the Luxembourg Declaration on Public Procurement, a shared commitment to improving procurement practices across Europe in support of design quality, sustainability, and long-term value.