Environmental aspects will be considered by French public purchasers when assessing the various bids

Published

Jul 05 2022

Written By

As the partner in charge of our Finance group in France and co-managing partner of our Casablanca office, I advise investment funds, banks, sponsors and public entities on the structuring, award and financing of projects in the energy, infrastructure and automotive sectors in Europe and Africa.

Decree n° 2022-767 amending the French Public Procurement Code has been issued on 3 May 2022 and introduces new provisions regarding awarding criteria and their specifications.

Decree amends article R. 2152-7 of the French Public Procurement Code to consider the environmental criterion in public procurement contracts and concession contracts’ awarding process.

Under French law, procurement and concession contracts may be awarded based on a sole price criterion for certain types of goods. From 21 August 2026, these contracts will be awarded by public purchasers based on different criteria:

Either a price criterion considering the environmental aspects of the offer submitted;
Or multiple criteria, which may be either the price, the cost, or other criteria. Each criterion shall consider and entail the evaluation of the environmental aspects of the offer.

Although references to the notion of “environmental aspects” can be found in Annex 9 of the French Procurement code (this annex mentions the compliance of the products with environmental standards and eco-management scheme), this notion is not really defined.

Few doubts remain regarding the fact that this notion of environmental aspects is too vague and should be specified by regulations or guidelines from the French Authority in the coming years. It will definitely be of assistance for bidders wishing to structure their offer and public purchasers wishing to assess properly such offers in light of the “environmental features”.

For the decree, please see here

For the Climate and Resilience Law, please see here