"The mix of financial pressure on public authorities and public procurement rules that allow the same authorities to ignore social criteria in tendering, results in half of tenders in Europe being awarded based solely on the lowest price. This lowest price tendering puts pressure on wages and working conditions, leads to less competition as better contractors refuse to bid so low, worsens the quality of public services, brings less tax income and, crucially, it weakens collective bargaining. If the European Union is serious about strengthening a social Europe and collective bargaining, it should leverage the money spent through public procurement by demanding that bidding contractors have collective agreements in place, respect fundamental labour rights and workers' say at work. This demand for social public procurement is supported by the majority of EU citizens. Furthermore, the European Parliament has adopted several reports calling for similar changes"

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