Environmental Clauses in Public Procurement : Developments Introduced by the 2014 Directives

As in every public policy, environmental protection policies play each time a more important role in public procurement strategies, procedures and legislations. Especially since the decade of the 2000s public contracts policies in both EU and Member States have evolved towards a greater importance of the environmental aspects in public procurement. This tendency has been finally brought up to legislation by the approval of the 2014 Directives, which have decisively supported the inclusion of environmental characteristics in every stage of the contract life by the introduction of a greater and clearer scope of action for the contracting authorities in terms of Green Public Procurement. In this research we will analyse the main statements introduced by the Public Procurement Directives on this subject in every stage of the contract, from the preparation to the performance of the contract, as well as the key consequences these measures may have in the implementation of the European legislation to be made by every Member State