The EU Commission has presented a proposal to modernise and simplify EU procurement law. Although currently only a draft – requiring approval from the EU Parliament and member states – the proposal carries significant weight. It also addresses key issues in electromobility, as the new regulations would apply to typical EU-wide tenders for battery-electric buses and charging infrastructure by public transport operators, as well as to the procurement of electric vehicles for municipal fleets and their in-house operations, such as waste management services.
The proposal aims to modernise and simplify the EU framework for public procurement, enabling authorities and publicly controlled companies to award contracts more on the basis of strategic considerations. A key focus is ensuring that companies from third countries outside the EU – such as China – can be more easily excluded from procurement procedures in future than before.
EU Commissioner cites BYD buses as example
Stéphane Séjourné, EU Commissioner for Industrial Strategy, provided a concrete example when presenting the plans: “After the adoption of this reform, it won’t be because of the European commissioner if there are BYD buses in Berlin.” While the local public transport operator BVG does not currently operate any (electric) buses from the Chinese manufacturer, Séjourné was likely alluding to the order of 200 electric buses placed by Deutsche Bahn with BYD, which caused considerable controversy last December. At the time, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) had called for more location-based patriotism (link in German) and stated that this order annoyed him.
