Harnessing Public Procurement for the Green Transition

Hungary

Framework, scope, action-plans

National GPP strategy in development at the time of the survey.

Implementation

Although the GPP was in development at the time of the survey, Hungary already had mandatory requirements in place to use GPP for specific purchasing categories:

• For public catering: contracting authorities are obliged to insert as contract performance clause the following: minimum 60% of the total value of products procured; minimum 80% of the total value of products procured shall consist of products procured in short public catering supply chains, respectively shall originate from local food products. Furthermore, pursuant to Government Decree No. 676/2020, the contracting authority shall consider at least three out the following criteria upon establishing award criteria, and shall not apply the criterion of lowest price as single award criterion concerning public food services:

  a. Out of the total value of all products procured, in terms of the aggregated proportion of products procured in public catering short supply chain and local food products, a more favourable (higher) undertaking than the proportion(s) set as mandatory contractual clause in the procedure;

  b. The shortest possible delivery period between the location of food preparation and dishing;

  c. Highest possible share of products originating from organic farming in the food delivered;

  d. Highest possible share of food with labels required in the procedure in the food delivered;

  e. Undertaking to implement customer feedback system, users of the service have the documented possibility to express their opinion and provide feedback;

  f. Provision of vegetables, fruits more often than as laid down in the provisions of the decree on nutrition and health;

  g. Provision of wholegrain based food more often than as laid down in the provisions of the decree on nutrition and health;

  h. The service provider undertakes to provide dietetic catering.

• The Act on Energy Efficiency imposes an obligation for certain central contracting authorities, that in terms of procurements reaching or excessing EU thresholds, only highly energy efficient products, services and public works shall be procured, provided the procurement complies with cost efficiency, economic feasibility, technical suitability and competition, in line with Directive 2012/27/EU.

• Clean vehicles: the transposition of the new clean vehicles Directive was still in progress at the time of the Survey. Government decree No. 48/2011 on promoting the procurement of environmentally friendly and energy efficient road transport vehicles lays down that upon procuring road vehicles, contracting authorities and bus service providers are obliged to consider the full lifecycle energetic and environmental effects related to the operation of the vehicles and include and implement this by including as a technical suitability criterion or evaluation criterion.

• Central purchasing: Government Decree No. 168/2004 on the central purchasing system sets forth the mandatory criteria to be implemented upon the purchasing of focus products and establishes that among others, environmental criteria to be considered shall be clearly specified in terms of the public procurement of focus products.

Measurement and impact

Contracting authorities in Hungary report through a digital platform linked to the eProcurement system. As of 1 January 2021, the contract registry of the Electronic Public Procurement System enables data collection in terms of the application green criteria also above EU thresholds.

Recent developments

Since the launch of the OECD GPP Survey, Hungary has adopted a GPP strategy for the period 2022-2027 which envisaged the development of tools and incentives to support the development of green public procurement practices. The Council operating within the framework of the Public Procurement Authority also adopted three new “green” Guides:

1. A Guide on Indoor Cleaning Services to support contracting authorities in the uptake of GPP for the procurement of these services;

2. A Guide on Green Public Procurement of Graphic Paper that outlines the EU GPP criteria for copying and graphic paper and presents European and Hungarian good practice examples and their key lessons learnt;

3. A Guide on Green Public Procurement of Furniture that presents the relevant EU GPP criteria, eco-labels as well as international and national best practice examples to stimulate Hungarian contracting authorities.

In 2023, the Public Procurement Authority also published a series of GPP leaflets1, which aim at promoting the change of attitude required for the implementation of GPP. The publications focus on key issues of sustainable public procurement and tackle the following topics:

• Reduction of waste in public procurement

• Procurement of public supplies

• Sustainable public works: the BIM methodology

• Sustainable public catering

• The Green Public Procurement Strategy of Hungary

• Circular public procurement