The contracting authority following the provisions of the Article 24 of the Law on Public Procurement may lay down special conditions for the performance of a contract, relating to social and environmental requirements, provided that these are compatible with Community law.

Contract performance conditions are compatible with the EU directives provided “that they are not directly or indirectly discriminatory and are indicated in the contract notice or in the contract documents. They may, in particular, be intended to favour on-site vocational training, the employment of people experiencing particular difficulty in achieving integration, the fight against unemployment or the protection of the environment. For instance, such requirements applicable during performance of the contract can be mentioned to recruit long-term job-seekers or to implement training measures for the unemployed or young persons, to comply in substance with the provisions of the basic International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions, assuming that such provisions have not been implemented in national law, and to recruit more handicapped persons than are required under national legislation”.

            Examples of possible environmental performance clauses for works or services contracts include:

• Delivery of unwrapped but not unitary goods;
• Reuse of packaging;
• Use of reusable containers to transport products to the site;
• Products or packaging taken away for reuse, recycling or appropriate disposal by the contractor;
• Use of dosage indicators to ensure that appropriate quantities of cleaning product are used;
• Performance of campaigns to increase environmental consciousness;
• Delivery of goods outside peak traffic times to minimize the contribution of deliveries to traffic congestion.

In some cases the contracting authority can use contract clauses to specify the method of transport that should be used to deliver the goods, but has to make sure that it is not discriminatory, i.e. the specified means of transport are used for more than by one supplier.

After defining in the contract documents the contract performance clauses referring to environmental and social items the contracting authority rejects the tenders of suppliers which don’t agree with the proposed clauses.