Are EU Institutions Still Green Actors? An Empirical Study of Green Public Procurement
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Abstract Analysing the environmental actorness of the EU, more than one voice has spoken of the myth of a Green Europe and a dismantling process of its environmental ambitions. To date, any attempt to quantify this in a homogeneous fashion by different levels of government and institutions has run into serious difficulties. This research, however, uses green public procurement (GPP) as the research instrument to quantify the commitment to environmental policies. We construct the database from tenders published in the Supplement to the Official Journal between 2009 and 2019. Based on more than 743,061 observations, the article finds that the EU's institutions have the lowest GPP adoption rates in relation to all other levels of government. Moreover, it also records marked differences between the EU institutions where the European Parliament is performing better than the European Commission and, during Juncker Commission, EC performs worse.
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The largest sample found was that of Badell and Rosell (2021), with a sample of 743,061 EU-level tenders.
“The largest sample found to date was that of Badell and Rosell (2021), who explained GPP as a research tool to quantify commitment to environmental policies, with a sample of 743,061 EU-level tenders.”
From Green public procurement as an effective way for sustainable development: A systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis (2025) · cites this paper as Badell and Rosell (2021)
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- Authors
- Badell, D., & Rosell, J.
- Affiliations
- Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (ES)
- Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA) (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Rosell, Jordi
- Venue
- JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2021-06-17
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1555-1572
- ISSN
- 0021-9886 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-5965
- OpenAlex
- W3174855178
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 6.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Academica-e (Universidad Pública de Navarra) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Universitat de Girona Digital Repository (Universitat de Girona) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PID2019‐104319RB‐I00)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Public Procurement and Policy
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › European Union Policy and Governance
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
- Keywords
- green public procurement, EU institutions, environmental policy, European Parliament, European Commission, Juncker Commission, public tenders, official journal supplement, levels of government
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