As of 1 January 2021, contracting authorities in the Czech Republic have to consider whether socially and environmentally responsible procurement and/or innovation procurement principles can be applied in every newly published tender.

As part of the recently adopted Waste Package, the Czech government has introduced an amendment to the Public Procurement Act which makes the consideration of environmental, social and innovative criteria mandatory for public procurement. This means that contracting authorities (both public and private, which are obliged to abide to the law on public procurement) need to consider whether it is possible to include requirements for green, socially responsible and innovative procurement.

The Czech Association for Public Procurement – one of the most important organisations in this field in the country - is anticipating challenges with the application of the new law in practice. Even though green public procurement (GPP) has become more standard practice recently, according to the Association, public procurers will find it difficult to include criteria for green and socially responsible procurement in every tender.

The Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs have a number of guidance materials, publications and are organising capacity building events. These were developed in anticipation of the new requirements and are ready to support contracting authorities with sustainable procurement in practice. Guidelines (including the EU GPP toolkit) on how to implement environmental criteria in public purchases are available on the website of the Ministry of Environment.

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